Monstiformer: Origins
by 526pvi
Summary: Everyone knows about the predicons, how they came from Cybertron, and how they were depicted in myth and legend. But, what if those were not merely the mechanical beasts' doing? Two worlds are forever entwined in more ways than one, something Jack, Miko and Raf get to experience first hand. Bots come in later, Transformers with Monster Hunter elements.
1. Teaser

**"Darn it! We lost**** it."**

_Silence._

**"Can either of you get ahold of a bot!?"**

_It surrounded them on all sides._

**"We need to go, NOW. We can't be here."**

_Where were they?_

_Who were they?_

**"Move, move MOVE, it's coming!"**

**_"Are you a monster? Or are you a sentient?"_**


	2. Takeoff

**Disclaimer: Transformers Prime and the Monster Hunter franchise do not belong to me. I only own the storyline and my OCs do.**

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_They caught us at our darkest hour. They came in the medieval age, wreaking havoc wherever they went, with gales and tsunamis trailing in their wake. Enormous beasts of tremendous power now roamed the lands, claiming the Earth for their own. Humankind was caught off guard, but not for long._

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_We forged our own armor, and crafted our own claws. We built massive structures designed to bring down even the toughest of the beasts. We managed to quell their numbers though sheer determination, and drove them back to whence they came. It was all for naught, for those were just the beginning._

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"-That was when we discovered the Rifts, which most of you know better, as Spawn Points. Most of the monsters our ancestors fought were weakened from the incomplete Rifts, and were thus easier to subdue. Moving on-"

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A ten year old Jack listened with rapture. He was one of the new recruits chosen to work for the E.L.D.E.R, the Extraneous Legendary Dragon Expert Removal organization and was currently brushing up on agency history. He was currently in one of their branch headquarters, located underground to guard from local monster attacks. To Jack, the bunker looked more like the inside of a spaceship than a military facility. Though, he was touring the inside of their history department, so the glass may be influencing his view.

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"The creatures that come through the rifts are untamable, with the only exception, the Halk, already domesticated and trained to aid a hunter in battle."

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Jack had always liked the Halk, they were little wyverns that loved to hang around hunters. They were able to do tricks if coxed with meat. It made him wonder about the bigger monsters. What were they like?

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"Professor?" a voice interrupted, "When do we get to see the rest of the base?"

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It was a redheaded recruit close to his age. Jack didn't know him, but his dad seemed to know the other kid's dad really well.

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"When you're ready and qualified to hunt a Class-D monster, Vince, and not any sooner."

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When Jack was finished with all of his lessons and training, he was dismissed to go home. He had always thought that the transports seemed a bit strange, as they were all covered in strange materials.

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Three of the buses rumbled to a stop at the exit of the historical sector. Jack looked for the one with a magnet symbol, just like his dad said. He climbed aboard, noting how this bus was coated in silver-black and red plates.

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As he climbed onto the bus, he noticed that it was mostly empty, with only two other recruits sitting in the back. His dad always said to be open minded, so he figured that he could be friends with them.

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Jack made his way into the back, and chose a seat next to both of them, just as the bus started moving.

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The girl noticed him first. She waved hello before nudging the smaller boy next to her.

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"Hi! I'm Miko! Who are you? Where do you live? Who are your mom and dad? What rank are they? They have to be good to live in this district-" she was interrupted when the boy tugged on her sleeve.

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"I almost forgot, this is Raf. I'm currently watching him for his parents. He is really smart, so he can follow us in the lessons. You never said your name though."

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Jack caught off guard, but recovered quickly.

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He replied, "My name is Jack, and my mom and dad's names are James and June."

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Before he could continue, the girl, Miko cut him off.

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"Dude, THE James and June? Your parents are FAMOUS!" she screeched right into his ear.

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Jack rubbed his ear in pain.

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"Ow. They are my parents, so I know already." the bus stopped and the bus doors opened.

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"Dragon Central Station"the computer generated voice buzzed.

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"Oh, that's our stop. Come on Jack, let's go!" shouted Miko as she bounced up flew down the bus, dragging Raf with her.

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"'Dragon Central Station' is the name of the central platform, of the Dragon housing district, kiddo." He rubbed Jack's head. "There are small monorails that take you to your home."

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Jack quickly caught up to Miko as they exited out of the bus, following them to the waiting platform.

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He asked, "Which vein do you live in?" to Miko, wanting to know if he'll see them again. They all sat down on of the benches.

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"Raf and I live in the Forest vein, there are lots of big trees there, perfect for climbing on. Where are you?" Miko looked at him, curious to know where the son of June and James lived.

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"I live in the Tundra zone. We have snow all year around.-"Jack was interrupted by Miko's earsplitting squeal.

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"You get to have snow all year? Lucky, we just get hail, "Raf butted in, "-and rain."

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Miko nodded, "And rain, but that's just boring. Hail is much more fun."

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Jack was about to question Miko's definition of fun when he noticed that his train was there. He turned back to Miko and Raf, catching their attention.

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"My train is here, I've got to go. Bye!" He yelled, waving over his shoulder while running to catch the train with a silver dragon on it. Miko and Raf waved back, both preoccupied with moving towards their own train.

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As he took a seat, the train started to move.

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"Attention all passengers, please keep to your seats until the train is at a complete stop."

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He occupied himself with looking out the window. There weren't a lot of people that lived in the district, because of the strict requirements that it had on it's residents. There were even less going to the Frozen Vein.

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The train stopped three times before his stop.

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"Now arriving at the Icescale Plains. Please remain seated until the train is at a complete stop."

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Jack was jolted from thinking about the monsters by this announcement. When the train stopped, he hopped off, and began walking to one of the houses.

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It was a large house, with two stories, and four bedrooms. One for him, one for his mom, one for his dad, and one for any guests. They never really had guests around, but, judging from Miko's reaction to his parents, it was more for peace and quiet, than because no one wanted to come.

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He knocked on the door, and waited until someone answered. The door opened and he was greeted by a large hug, and lots of questions.

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"How was training? Did you get there on time? Was the trip home ok?"

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Jack sighed. The questions were the same every time. He answered them accordingly, yes his training was ok, yes I got there on time, and yes the trip home was fine. Then he noticed something.

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"Mom? Where's Dad?"

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"Your dad's finishing up on a mission, he'll be here soon." June answered.

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Right when she said that, the door opened to reveal Jack's father, with no visible wounds, clutching a bundle close to his chest. His halk, a shimmering white ice-affinity female, shook off the snow that had gathered on her scales, and flew inside.

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"DAD!" Jack rushed over to his father, happy to see him again.

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"Hey, kiddo," he ruffled Jack's hair, "want to see what I found?" he held up the bundle.

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Jack was curious, but before he could answer June pulled them both out of the doorway, shutting the door behind her.

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"James, show Jack your little surprise inside the house, preferably where it can't make a mess," she said, pretending to be annoyed, a small smile betraying her mirth.

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James chuckled as he led Jack into one of the empty rooms, his halk following. He then gently unwrapped the bundle of blankets to reveal a baby halk. It was a black and maroon male, with some silver highlights on its horn stubs. James held the halk out to Jack, and Jack carefully took it from him.

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"This is a baby Draconic Halk, and it is yours to train. I figured that, since you'll be hunting in a few years, you should start forming a bond with your own partner as soon as possible. Valkyrie," he gestured to the white wyvern cooing at the baby, "will assist you in caring for the little guy."

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Jack nodded, beaming with joy. He already knew how to care for a halk, thanks to Valkyrie, and he has watched enough training videos to teach the baby properly. He did have a question though.

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"Where did you get him? "Jack asked. You couldn't find draconic aligned halk just anywhere. They tended to be more expensive than the rest due to their explosive tendencies, and to their rarity.

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"I found the little guy on the way back from my wyvern hunt. He was barely out of his egg, with a piece of eggshell still stuck to him." He showed Jack the shell. It was maroon, with rough black and silver patches. "Since there way no way he could survive on his own, I decided to bring him back for you."

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He looked at the baby, who was still sleeping and back to Jack. "What do you want to call him?" He asked Jack.

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**"Nyre"**

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_-.-.-.-.-.-.timeskip-.-.-.-.-.-.-_

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_Jack was twelve when he took down his first monster._

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"Jack, let's go. We don't want that big bird knowing we're on to it." called his dad.

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Jack nodded, and scampered from the weapon rack, over to the transport vehicle where the other hunters and some newbies like him were waiting. Nyre was still too young to fight, so he would be staying behind.

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It was Jack's first time on a flying transport model. This transport was more tank-like than the district transports, plated with black scales, two small wings branching from it. It was also one of the newer flying models, capable of going supersonic to escape any monster or human pursuers. The inside of the transport sported two rows of seats, one for recruits, and one for professionals. He quickly climbed aboard, and sat down next to the other recruits.

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"Hey Jack, what did you pick for your weapon type?" asked a quiet recruit after they were all situated.

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"Dual Blades," he gestured to the twin swords he was carrying, setting them down and fitting them into the weapon holder.

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"Speaking of weapons, why are you here Raf? I thought they didn't let anyone under the age of twelve onto the hunting grounds." Jack would be mortified if the agency let an eight year old onto the battlefield.

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"I'm just here for observation. The agency wants me to develop battle strategies based on what I see in the field. It also means that I'll be staying in the observation tower, far away from the actual fighting." While adjusting his backpack, Raf noticed something strange.

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"Hey, where's Miko?"

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Jack looked around.

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"I dunno, she should be here any second-"

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As soon as he said that, a girl with pink and black pigtails, carrying a thin sword twice her length, jumped on the transport, sliding into the seat right beside him. She was carelessly swinging the sword, almost cutting Jack if he didn't dodge in time. Her parents followed, seating themselves next to Jack's father.

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To say that Jack was surprised would be an overstatement. Two years of dealing with Miko's antics made coming late to a monster hunt, not as shocking as it should have been. He just got up and went back to his seat to address Miko.

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"Miko..." Jack sighed. "Besides the fact that you almost decapitated someone with that sword, you should remember that we are getting assigned our teams today."

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He looked pointedly at the front of the transport, where a Class-B agent was taking notes. This was the person who would be deciding who they would work with until they graduated from the training program.

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Jack looked back at Miko, "-so please behave. You don't want to get stuck with a by-the-book partner, right?"

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She nodded, looking dejected, but did stop swinging her long sword around, sliding it into the weapon holder.

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The doors of the plane closed, as the metal harnesses above everyone's heads dropped down.

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"All assigned recruits and professionals accounted for. Please engage appropriate safety gear and prepare for departure."

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The professionals quickly pulled down heavy metal bars, reminiscent of those found on roller-coasters, and quickly strapped them down. The recruits took a little longer, some of them not able to reach the poles, and some, just too hyper to put them on.

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"Miko, sit still. You have to get strapped in even if you don't want to. How do you think professional hunters stay alive when heading out on a hunt?"

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Jack tapped his own harness. "This thing is to keep us from flying everywhere when a Rathalos decides to play catch with the transport. The Diablos scales won't keep everything with a temper and a flamethrower-... Miko?"

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Miko was looking at him like he grew a second head. Raf tried to jog her memory by describing the monsters that Jack had mentioned, while putting on his own harness.

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"Rathalos, the red flying wyvern known as the 'King of the Skies?' Diablos, the horned wyvern known as the 'Tyrant of the Sands?'" Raf asked, finally pulling down the bars and fastening his own harness.

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Miko looked at Raf, saying "Whaaa-", sounding as if she had never seen a monster in her life.

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Then Jack realized the reason and deadpanned, "Did you fall asleep in Monster Classifications again?" while making sure that both Miko's and Raf's harnesses were properly secured. The latter still had problems with the harness because of his short stature. Jack decided to simply pull the harness to its tightest setting, seeing as there was no way to remedy this in the current situation.

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Miko snorted, "You mean 'How Not to Die 101?' That class is the most boring thing in my liiiiiife-".

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"And yet, it has kept the hunters alive, and ready to continue the fight," Jack responded with practiced ease.

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The doors of the transport closed, and it was given the green light to begin the start-up sequence. "All safety equipment should be engaged at this time. Please remain seated until the transport is at a complete stop."

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Miko was immediately distracted from their debate, focusing on the transmission. Jack felt a premonition and, from Raf's reaction of shifting away from Miko, so did he.

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"Sit tight," Miko said, a smile slowly forming as she looked at the boys, hands tightening on the bars, "This is my favorite part."

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There was a hiss as the air-locks in the metal harnesses activated. They would not be coming off until their destination was reached.

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Years of experience have shown Jack that Miko's list of favorite things usually included explosions, risk of injury, and activities normally in need of hazard warnings, and consent forms. Seeing as she was excited enough about a transport ride to stop bouncing off the walls, meant that he had better be prepared for the worst.

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"Miko," Jack started, "What do you mean by favorite-"the lights shut off, and a faint rumble could be heard in the cabin.

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"All systems go. Prepare for departure in 3…...2…...1…Launch."

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The transport shot forward, G-forces slamming everyone against their harnesses. Jack got his breath knocked out of him, and, looking at Raf, he wasn't the only one.

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"_The lift-off is the most jarring part of the process. You'll get used to it in no time." Nyre nudged him encouragingly. "Yeah," Jack agreed._

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The ship kept accelerating, and, peaking out of a window, Jack saw that they had already exited the base from a tunnel. The view was stunning; Jack could see vast carpets of forest, giving way to wisps of snow. They were so high up that the transport was regularly breaking through clouds.

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Soon the ship stopped tilting upwards, and Jack no longer had to struggle to drag himself up to a window.

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"We have reached cruising altitude. We will begin touchdown sequence in fifteen minutes. Please do not attempt to remove your safety equipment, and remain seated for the remainder of this flight."

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Jack heard some rustling over the now non-existent rumbling, and turned to see Miko attempting to remove the harness that now sported three dead knots. He and Raf just watched her attempts at freedom while conversing about the intended hunting target. Raf was curious about what he was going to see, so Jack told him their quarry.

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"We are going after a Velocidrome, a raptor-like bird wyvern that is an alpha to the Velociprey."

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Raf nodded in understanding, screen on his arm flickering to life. It was standard issue for new recruits, providing a wealth of information on the fly, as well as a force-field that could tank one hit. It has saved many lives when a hunting trip goes wrong.

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"Well, I can't reveal much beyond what you already know, but I can say that your weapon choice is good for the hunt."

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Jack hummed in agreement, looking at the swords locked on the floor in front of them. They were electric weapons, capable of fast attacks and massive damage output. The weapon was currently locked in the weapon holder, as was standard protocol, to prevent the sharp edges from hurting someone during the launch and the landing sequences.

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The hunt of a weak monster of the 'Drome' family was a test, it was meant to assess their teamwork, as well as their fighting abilities and coordination. No extra information would be given to the recruits, beyond the basics, so Raf could not help them. The professional hunters were there to provide support to their small team of four, should the hunt get interrupted by another monster, or if one of the recruits was in mortal danger.

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Jack looked over his teammates one more time. He had trained with them all, so it should be no problem. First was a tall girl named Aalexi, code-name Tempo. She was more tolerant than most of the others he had worked with, having no problems at adapting to new plans in the middle of a hunting simulation. Her specialty was a Chargeblade, and she was tasked with drawing the monster's attention away from the rest of her teammates.

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Then was the redhead, Vince, code-named Redstone. He had a cocky attitude, which usually got him into trouble in simulations. He was a hard worker, though. He was in charge of DPS, and had the weapon to prove it. He used a broad sword, known for its slow movement speed but high attack power.

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Miko's squirming brought Jack's attention back to her. She had managed to loosen one of the dead-knots on her harness, but had somehow managed to get herself more tangled than before. Jack shook his head in amusement. He knew that the harnesses would lift by themselves, and that one only had to undo the buckles after to get free.

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Miko was the team's other DPS dealer, code-named Scythe. She was loud, and so energetic that she seemed hyperactive most of the time. Her long sword, reminiscent of a katana from her country, was perfect for dealing massive damage from attack combos. Despite its large size, the long sword is a nimble weapon, made for dodges, and fast chains of attacks. She and Vince would attempt to sever a monster's body parts while hunting.

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Jack himself was the controller, the one who would take back control from the monster if its attacks get too vicious, or the team, too exhausted. Due to using dual blades, he was able to attack from above the monster, rather than below. This attack method was perfect for inflicting massive amounts of damage where the monster could not reach. This also meant that he could distract the monster to give his team some respite. His code-name was Enigma, given to him at the request of his dad.

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The transport started to rumble again, and the straps that the harnesses were attached to were retracted, squeezing Jack so hard that it was hard for him to breath.

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"Landing sequence initiated. Please be prepared for the dive. Sequence initiating in 3…...2…...1, Dive."

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Jack barely had time to warn Miko and get her re-situated before he was slammed against the harness. The transport punched through the cloud layer into a green plain. Jack could only see that much before the strain of holding himself against the g-forces overpowered his muscles. He could only brace for the impact of landing, and hope that no one will be hurt in the hunt.

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The machinery began to whir and beep. The landing gear was deploying. Jack didn't even notice that they had retracted.

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"Suitable landing spot located. Prepare for touchdown in 3…...**2…...1**"

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-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

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_Sorry about the periods. I can't find another way to separate the paragraphs. Hope you enjoyed._


	3. The Hunt

**Disclaimer: Transformers Prime and the Monster Hunter franchise do not belong to me. I only own the storyline and my OCs.**

**-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-**

The transport touched down on the plain, sliding over the grass as it tried to loose speed. It had already applied the air-brakes while in the air, but it didn't do much to curb the flight of the heavy aircraft.

Jack hung on to his harness for dear life, the decent having almost wrenched him out of his seat while the landing felt like the aircraft had crashed into the soil, instead of touching down on it. After the initial touchdown, the transport started shaking, as the landing gear struggled to stop the aircraft and keep it on the ground. Jack thought the air plane was going to fall apart with the way that it was shaking.

Gradually, the transport began to slow down. As it did, the rumbling of the engines and the shaking of the landing gear starter to decrease. Jack could finally focus on the scenery outside the transport, now that it was slowing down.

It was a verdant green field of grass, surrounded by a ring of dense forest. He could see deer in the distance, and could make out some silhouettes of moving animals right by the windows. He guessed that the 'drome would have wanted an easy meal, and so headed here. It would soon sense that something was in its territory, and head over to see what the disturbance was. The transport stopped moving soon after it's decrease in speed, brakes hissing and releasing steam, water being applied to the landing gear to prevent any fire.

"The transport has come to a complete stop." The air-locks on Jack's harness released air, and he could feel it semi-lifting off of his body. "Please disengage the transport's safety equipment, and exit through the rear lift."

Jack and the other recruits unbuckled their harnesses, picking up their weapons, and followed the professionals, who had already equipped their weapons and were waiting for them. Miko had more trouble with her harness, but Aalexi managed to untangle her enough for her to wriggle out. Jack looked around the plain, noting that the animals seemed mostly unperturbed by their flight, before turning his attention to the instructor, the grass coming up to his knees. The test agent followed them closely, and, when they were outside, began to explain to them the rules of the test. Raf also came outside, but was led away by another agent to a nearby tree, which happened to be the observation tower.

Before disembarking, Jack remembered to check to see if his equipment still functioned properly. He tapped his own arm-map, making it flicker before blinking on to show their surroundings. There were three blinking dots, showing where his teammates were. There was also a solid triangle, showing where he was in relation to everyone else. He then decided to check on his helmet. It was a standard issue helmet, smooth white with small ridges along the head and cheeks. He tapped on the com-link, checking if the signal still worked. Receiving three beeps from the device, Jack confirmed that it was good to use.

"Listen up recruits! This-" he gestured to the field before them, "is the place where the designated quarry is hiding. You will find it, and subdue it before it causes any permanent damage to the surroundings. Remember! Once you locate the monster, it will form a time-rift that only other hunters can see. That means that ANY damage that you leave will be noticed INSTANTLY. So, DON'T LEAVE ANY. Understood?"

Jack and the others instantly stood at attention and saluted, yelling out "YES SIR!", before running into the field. Jack looked back at his dad, and James gave him a thumbs up. Jack smiled back before running off after his teammates.

_"The Velocidrome hunt in packs along with its smaller brethren, the Velociprey. They are blue, with distinctive orange crests. They are very easy to spot, and will not take much skill to find. Once you dispatch their leader, the weaker Velociprey will be easier to handle."_

Jack caught up with them, and looked around the area. He didn't see the bird wyverns at first, but soon spotted a group of bluish blurs parting the grass. He caught the attention of the other recruits, pointing in the direction of the figures.

_**"There**,**"**_ he whispered, as all of them began to creep towards the wyverns. Jack made sure to keep his head below the grass, so the Velociprey could not sense anything off.

The group of raptor-like wyverns began slowing down when they approached a herd of deer, a small group of three Velociprey and the Velocidrome splitting off from the main group to circle around the deer.

_"Why do we have to kill them?" "Well Jack, we don't kill all of them. Most of the monsters carry a deadly virus, and must be eradicated. The few that don't are kept in remote regions in the world, so they can live out their lives in peace."_

When the smaller group got far enough away, Jack and the others began their plan. Miko, Vince and Aalexi each picked out a Velociprey and drew them away. Jack himself began to lure the alpha away from the rest, pulling out a bottle of prepared bait blood. He kept it moving towards him using small drops of herbivore blood, and occasionally rustling the grass.

_"You sure this is going to work?" "As long as the smaller group is far enough away, we can lure the Velocidrome away and gag it." "With what?" "With the 'glue-gun,' which I'll be carrying. Then, it won't be able to call reinforcements."_

When Jack couldn't see the others on his mini-map, he decided that the Velocidrome should be far enough away not to attract any unwanted attention. Pulling out the glue-gun, he retreated further into the grass. He commed his teammates to let them know that it was time to begin.

He touched his finger to his com-link. "This is Enigma, the bird is in position. I'm prepared to fire, over." The others should be moving around the Velocidrome, and sure enough, Jack could see them surrounding the wyvern through his mini-map.

_"This is Tempo, I'm moving in. Be prepared to fire Enigma, over." _Before the wyvern even noticed that something was off, Aalexi sprang into action, lobbing a paintball at it's head, blinding it as she slashed downward with her sword. The wyvern fell back from the blow, shaking off enough of the paint in order to see Aalexi charging at it. With it's attention drawn towards Aalexi, Miko and Vince sprung into action.

As soon as Aalexi attacked, the world seemed to flicker, as a time-rift formed around them. They were now invisible to normal blooded civilians, letting them carry on with their business even if there were civilians around.

"Copy that Tempo." Jack had to stay in hiding until he could get a clear shot of the monster's mouth. With pack monsters, it is vital that you cut off their connection with the rest of the pack. While it would be no problems for professional hunters to handle a pack of Velociprey, it would be very dangerous for a group of twelve-year-olds.

Miko and Vince rushed the monster from opposite sides in tandem, aiming for the monster's soft underbelly. When they were close enough, both Miko and Vince slashed upward, causing two nasty gashes on its stomach. They then used the momentum to fling themselves into the air, flipping their blades and spinning back down. They smashed their swords against the thick hide of the monster's back, sending it crashing onto the ground in perfect sinc. While they may argue a lot, Miko and Vince to make a good team.

_"WHOOO! YEAH! We brought it down!" _Jack was not so sure. Would an alpha predator who lived in a world much harsher than theirs fall so easily? He though not.

His com-link flared to life, Aalexi shouting for them to get out of the way. Apparently he wasn't the only one who thought this way. He didn't move, paying close attention to the monster's movements.

The monster got back up, angry and ready to take revenge. Its eyes started to glow a sinister deep purple, as violet veins began to spiderweb across it's body. It looked around, eyeing each wary hunter. It noticed that it was outnumbered, and was about to cry for its pack.

Just as it opened its mouth, a white orb came flying at it, hitting it square in the lower jaw, exploding on impact. The monster shook its head, trying to get the substance off of its snout. Noticing that the hunters were approaching, it tried to roar, only to find that its jaw was glued shut.

_"Nice shot Enigma!"_ Jack smirked, putting his gun away and pulling his dual blades out of their sheaths. He circled to the back of the monster, prepared to make his move while it was still distracted.

"Thanks Scythe, I'll pin it down before it runs." A cornered monster, was a dangerous monster. If Jack let it get away, it could easily circle back around them, and ambush them from behind with the rest of its pack.

Jack rushed at the Velocidrome, feet barely touching the flattened grass as he charged at it. As soon as Jack was able to, he jumped onto it's back, stabbing both blades into its hide. The others, taking the chance to sharpen their weapons, also charged at it.

The monster thrashed in pain, trying to throw Jack off of it's back. The veins on its body began flaring, spreading further as its struggles intensified. Sure signs of the virus.

As Jack held on to the monster, Miko charged up to it and clocked it over the head. While it was dazed, Vince followed up with a charged horizontal slash to the throat. It ripped through its skin and tore straight into the muscle, puncturing more than a few blood vessels.

The monster fell back, bleeding purple from multiple slash wounds, Jack still hanging on to its back. The monster lunged forward, attempting to claw Vince, but was blocked by Aalexi. Jack hurriedly began yanking his blades, catching a glimps of Aalexi blocking the monster's attack before wrenching his weapons free.

He then proceeded to jab one of his weapons into the Velocidrome's head, lodging it just under its crest. He used the other blade to distract the monster, slashing at its eye and its throat. He succeeded in temporarily blinding it and causing another gash in its throat.

Miko and Vince were focusing on keeping the monster from thrashing around, by continuously slashing the legs. They managed to weaken both legs, knocking off a lot of scales.

Now unable to pinpoint its targets and being severely weakened, it began jumping on anything that made any noise, forcing Jack's team back. It also dislodged Jack and sent him tumbling a few feet from its head. Luckily, Jack kept hold of both of his weapons, though the monster immediately charged at him, hearing him crashing into the grass.

Jack looked at his mini-map, and upon seeing that no one was close enough to help him, dragged himself up from the ground. Tired from hanging onto the monster's head, it was all Jack could do to lift his swords, and prepare for impact.

It hit Jack like a freight train. Normally the Velocidrome would not choose to reveal its underbelly to anything, but it was desperate. Jack was semi-pinned by the monster's feet, its fore arms poised to shred him. It was about to tear into him when Aalexi slapped its head with her shield.

It raised its head, distracted. This moment was all Jack needed. He plunged his swords into premade gashes on the monster's throat, severing the main arteries and its windpipe. It fell, violet glow fading to reveal old battle scars. Strangly, it started bleeding red after the violet glow faded. It looked at Jack one last time, before laying its head to rest.

The distortion from the time-rift disappeared, and the team could clearly see their parents.

When the Velocidrome fell, it landed right next to Jack, pinning him under its feet. Miko and Aalexi both pushed the body up, while Vince dragged Jack from under its claws. Jack then pulled his weapons free of the monster and shook off the blood. He slid the swords back into their sheaths, locking them in.

_"The passing of a monster is a sorrowful event. They too are creatures of intelligence, of life. It is because of the virus that we must slay them. Hunters must pay downed monsters the proper respect, as it is only due to their gifts that we are able to continue fighting."_

Jack headed over to the monster's head with the rest of his teammates, wishing that it rest in peace. His dad walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, offering Jack a smile, to which Jack reprocated. The recruits then retreated from the body, letting their parents hook a harness to the monster.

The test agent arrived shortly after, pulling a large cable meant for transporting the bodies of monsters, connecting it to the harness before walking away to survey the damage done to the environment, as well as call for a cleanup operation. The cable was connected back to the transport, and would reel in the monster.

Jack stared at the pool of purple and red that the monster left behind. It was reminiscent of the monster's glowing veins, though he could not understand why the blood would turn red when the monster was slain.

"Why did the blood turn back to red?", he asked.

James smiled ruefully.

"Current research suggests that the virus's hold over the monster breaks when it no longer has the ability to stay alive. But-" he knelt down in front of Jack, "our ancestors believed it was because we set the monster's spirit free."

Raf had arrived with the test agent from the observation tower, and was currently talking to Miko. He turned as Jack came over.

"Hey, Jack, how was the hunt?" Raf asked as the others headed over to say hi.

Jack looked over the team, noting that they didn't look worse for wear. Miko had a scratch on her armor, while Vince sported a dent in his helmet. Aalexi bore the brunt of the damage, having a whip mark on her side, and claw marks streaking from her back to her front. He himself had scratches all over his front from getting pinned down.

"Pretty good," he answered after assesing the damage to the team. Then he remembered something. The Velocidrome was the alpha of the pack, meaning that the Velociprey would start looking for it soon.

"Wait, what about the Velociprey? They're bound to be looking for their leader by now! We need to take care-" Raf tugged on Jack's sleeve, interrupting his worrying.

"It's ok, the professionals already took care of it. There were three that weren't infected, and you can see them if you want."

Jack stopped worrying and desided to see the three uninfecteds, yelling out an "Ok!" over his shoulder as he ran over to their temporary enclosure.

They were in a small, fenced area, waiting for a transport to a Class-1 containment zone. It was where monsters of extremely low risk get sent if they do not have the virus.

The monsters noticed Jack's approach, and went over, curious to who this new person was. Jack guessed that they might have already been fed, or they'd be a lot more aggressive.

There was one who had blue stripes going up its crest, and another had yellow highlights on its claws. The last one was a bit smaller than the rest, and, as it moved closer, Jack could see small orange bands going up its tail.

"Recruits! Prepare to board for the ride back to base!"

Jack turned around, immediately running over to the transport. It was sitting right where they left it, with the professionals securing the Velocidrome and the Velociprey bodies in the belly compartment.

He was joined with the rest of his team, as they stood in front of the agent. Raf was led into the transport ahead of them by one of the pilots.

"Your results have been recorded down! You'll receive them in two weeks time. For now, head back and go collect your materials. DISMISSED."

Jack and the others scampered onto the transport, strapping themselves in. Jack slid his sheathed blades into the holding compartment, the metal bars automatically tightening in preperation for the flight back.

"Return protocol initiated. Please put on appropriate safety equipment and prepare for liftoff."

His seat was next to Raf and Miko again, and so, he had to help them with their safety harnesses again. At least Miko had the forsight to strap her weapon down. She did not want to suffer through the harness again, though.

"But Jaaaack, you saw how tangled I got last time, why do I have to do it again?"

It seemed that she had forgotten that the g-forces from the first flight had nearly ripped her right out of her harness. Jack promised that it wouldn't be as bad as the las time, as long as she quit struggling and causing tangles.

After convincing Miko to put on her harness, and helping Raf reach his, Jack strapped himself in to prepare for liftoff.

"All personnel accounted for. All safetly equipment engaged." Jack heard the air-brakes on the harnesses hiss again as they tightened. "Please prepare for liftoff in 3...2... 1...Launch."

The initial acceleration wasn't as extreme as the previous liftoff, because the transport had to fight the grass and ascend despite the resistance. It also had to prevent fron setting the ground on fire. Being built for extreme strain, the transport felt very smooth.

Once they reached a sufficient altitude, the main engine turned on, signalled by a rumbling sound. Then the transport shot into the sky, trailing fire in its wake.


	4. Reward

**Disclaimer: Transformers Prime and the Monster Hunter franchise do not belong to me. I only own the storyline and my OCs.**

**Normal: **"..."

**Machine Speaking: **"..."

**Flashback/Others Talking Over a Comlink: **_"..."_

**Important Points/ Significant: "..."**

**-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-**

The transport re-entered the base through one of the enormous tunnels designed to fit something as big as an Elder Dragon.

It touched down on the reinforced landing platform, rolling into one of the unloading bays.

This particular bay was where material from low-class monsters were registered. They would then be shipped to separate processing facilities, where all traces of the virus would be removed. The materials would then be put up for sale, or distributed as rewards.

Jack, while tightly gripping his harness, curiously peered out of the window, along with the rest of the recruits. This was the first time they had docked at one of these stations, so they were bound to be a little curious.

"The transport has come to a complete stop, please deactivate any transport safety equipment, and exit the transport."

The ship rolled to a stop, engines shutting down, and air-locks depressurizing. Jack unbuckled his harness, hopping out of the seat. He pulled his weapons out of the slots, strapping them back to his sides. He was about to head over to where the agent was, before his dad stopped him.

"Hang on their kiddo," James flipped Jack's faceplate up and held his hand out, "I think you forgot something."

There was a chipped blue and orange scale in his hand. Jack took it, examining it. He realized it was one of the scales that were cut off of the Velocidrome during their fight. It was chipped, with blue banding over an orange undertone.

"Thanks Dad!" Jack smiled at James. James chuckled.

**"It's tradition to keep a scale of every monster you face. That way, they are never forgotten." **

Jack smiled, clutching the scale and ran to where the recruits were bunched around the agent. The agent began announcing wha they were to do next.

"This was your placement test. As per the guidelines of your very first official quest, completion grants you access to any ONE piece or set of materials from ANY monster. Check your arm-screens for more information. Your results will be posted in TWO WEEKS. Do not forget, or you WILL. BE. STUCK. WITHOUT. A. TEAM. It has happened before, and YES, you WILL have to complete group assignments BY YOURSELF. Dissmissed."

Jack stood there for a while, dazed. Miko yelling in his ear brought him out of it.

"Dude! We get to pick material from ANYTHING WE WANT! Isn't this great?"

Jack nodded, and looked at his arm-screen. It flickered to the market page, listing various horns and scales at different prices. He pulled up his current balance, the one-piece/set coupon showing. The coupon was for the E.L.D.E.R market only, not applying for any of the private merchants. Credits were normally used for buying parts, but most people prefer to buy from private merchants, or would hunt diseased monsters themselves to get the needed materials.

He dropped his arm, letting the screen flicker off. It was interesting, but could wait until he took a shower. He headed back to the barrack area where all of the recruits, people twelve years and above, destined to become hunters, lived.

He entered the main living area through a hallway that led from the landing platform, and exiting onto another equally large platform. There were couches everywhere, with recruits happily chattering amongst themselves, as well as a huge, silver Monoblos emblem decorating the floor. There were four tunnels leading out from the platform, two leading into the individual rooms, and one to the base's elevator ring.

His room was in the boy's wing, located in the left of the living area. He walked through the tunnel leading to the wing, ending up at the intersection of two hallways, resembling the layout of a hotel.

He eventually reached his room, and the silver room code 'RB-57-T04' was embossed on his door. It was located at the next bend in the hallway, and was one of the corner rooms. These doors had lights lining them, his currently a vibrant red. On the door was a fingerprint scanner, replacing the traditional doorknob. He pressed a finger on it, and the door slid up, lights turning green, to reveal a moderately sized room, with a closet and a bathroom with a shower stall.

He walked in, taking off his boots while the door closed behind him. As he headed to his closet in search of his standard uniform, he began thinking about the different choices of materials he could get

Materials were used to craft and upgrade weapons. Jack already knew what material he wanted to get. Stripping down his recruit armor and turning on the water, Jack though back to his twelfth birthday.

-.-.-.-.-._-.-.-.-flashback-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-_

_Jack ripped open his second birthday gift. His first had been a full-size basic armor set for Nyre, when he was big enough to fight by his side._

_When he opened up the box, he found a few items that he had never seen before. According to his parents, they had found them on hunts and missions, but could never ID them. They also couldn't find the monster they came from, so it was safe to assume that they were still out there somewhere, hiding in the shadows._

_They assured him that these monster parts were virus free, for only the items that an infected monster's blood touches are dangerous._

_Two of them looked like scales, but made of glass. Touching them, he felt a sensation similar to that, of touching something of extreme cold or heat. They were bigger than both his hands combined, with jagged edges. They had been found half buried in a glacier, and the only reason Jack's parents had them was because James smacked into the glacier they were in and looked up._

_Another item was a piece of hide, half his size. It was torn up at the ends, though it was generally intact. The hide was covered in millions of tiny, gleaming silver scales. Jack ran his hand down it, suprised to find that it was as smooth as silk. This one was buried in mountian top, only unearthed when the wyvern Jack's parents were fighting gouged it out._

_The next few items were the most intriguing. They were quill-like objects that were as long as his forearms. Their color was charcoal black, with veins of glowing red. They almost resembled mini elongated long swords in shape, with one serrated and sharpened edge and one smooth edge. They were just laying in a cave, covered with silt and dust from age._

_The next two items were very strange. They looked like two pieces of glowing, sky-blue quartz. They were found in a monster hoard, so Jack's parents were even more puzzled about its origins than the rest. They were cold to the touch, and were each about the size of a silver dollar. If he looked closely at them, he could just make out the silhouette of a dragon._

_There were two objects left in the box. __They looked like chipped, straight horns, each one being the length oh his palm. Where the pointy ends of the horns used to be, were cracked edges. The horns, though hollow, were dense, as if made of some kind of metal. These were found in a ravine, in a place commonly scorched by lightning._

_-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-flashback end-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-_

During his free time, Jack would experiment with the materials, slowly deducing that all of them were super durable, and that the edges of the scales and the quills were very sharp.

He also noticed that, if he put the hide on something with high heat, like right over a flame, and put the crystal near it, the hide would begin to excrete reddish black particles. They weren't dangerous, Jack learned by not wearing any safety gear, but they do seem to boost the hardness of the hide.

The clear scales also seemed to become sharper when exposed to the particles, while the quills seemed to ooze energy when exposed. He still wasn't quite sure what the crystals did, though they did seem to amplify the effect of the hide.

The horns weren't all that special, and besides being extremely sturdy, Jack couldn't make them do anything special, until he touched them to a battery. The horns were instantly electrified, white flashes of power visibly flowing across their lengths.

Jack had slowly but surely developed a dual blade design that would use all of these materials to their fullest potential. All he needed was a main source of energy, which could only come from an Elder Dragon, or an extremely powerful Mutant.

Sitting in the recruit's general living area after a fresh shower, Jack went back to the market page on his arm-screen, searching for the right type of dragon. It needed to have an obvious source of power that was solid, like a bone. He was mainly looking for a horn, the size didn't matter to him.

Crafting weapons from monster parts works quite differently than crafting normal weapons. The materials used are normally too tough to be cut by normal means. This means that the weapons have to be made in a single go. In order for Jack to power his intended weapons, holes must be drilled into the blades to fit the power source. If the holes do not fit the powersource perfectly, then the space in between them would cause the weapon to loose power, becoming weaker than it was supposed to be.

Jack soon found a set of four Elder Dragon horn shards, with the power residing in the bones still intact. Two were small spirals of a gleaming red horn, the size of his pinky, while the other two were slightly larger spirals of dark blue horn, slightly glowing in power.

The two spiral types could be interlocked to form a double helix, thus maximizing the surface area which touched the base materials. The larger the touching area is, the more powerful the unleashed ability.

Luckily for Jack, these four horn spirals had the neccessary elemental affinities, and were purchasable by the coupon. He was about to make his selection before Miko plopped down next to him, looked at his screen, and pronounced him an idiot.

"Are you CRAZY? You get this ONE, GOLDEN opportunity to pick practically anything in the E.L.D.E.R market and you pick FOUR FLIPPING PIECES OF BONE THE SIZE OF MY FINGERS?"

Miko did have a point. To an outsider, it did look as if picking four bone shards, even if they had massive amounts of energy, was a waste of a coupon.

"Come on Miko, they're full of power. Where else am I supposed to find a deal like this?"

Miko shrugged, responding "Well, I think you should go through all of your options first. I guarantee you that no one will choose your precious horns, so at least look for something a little bigger. Besides, I think everyone's done choosing now." Miko gestured around the room.

Jack took a look around, noting how everyone their age was asking each other what they had picked.

"Ok," Jack reluctantly agreed, "I'll hold off on choosing until I look around a little more." He was mostly agreeing because he know that Miko wouldn't leave him alone until he did.

He saved the page with his previous selection, and flipped back to the market page. In the filter, he typed in the words 'coupon,' 'horn,' 'dragon,' and 'lightning'. The results that popped up were as he expected. He had already looked through them, and wasn't expecting anything new to pop up.

...Until something unexpected caught his eye. He clicked on it, sure it hadn't been there before. It was a pair of precrafted blades, but it looked as if they were failures. Instead of being smooth on both sides, the blades each had one rough side, as well as a small hole in the other side. The holes might have been intended for a thumb sized power crystal, but the person who forged it made them too big.

Beyond the obvious defects they had, the blades were almost perfect for Jack's needs. They used two types of materials, both being parts of horns containing Elder Dragon power. The pieces of horn used were scale-like, with one of both kinds fused together to make the blade.

According to the description, each blade was mostly made of an opalescent cut of Lunastra horn, with the rough side made of a glowing, carved piece of Alatrion inner-horn. The pieces were expertly melded together, though the crafter was too impatient with the engraving process, causing the glyphs, which should be present on the shimmering surface, to become extremely shallow, smooth carvings. Pretty to look at, not that useful.

The holes meant to hold enhancement gems were enlargened because of a premature cutting. The crafter was supposed to wait for at least twenty four hours after melding the horns together, but only waited three, causing the material to crumble under the strain of the elemental instability when they bore the hole.

Jack considered for a moment, mentally revising his weapon blueprint. Though not what he had originally intended, Jack could get almost three times the power as his original blade designs if he was clever about crafting them. Jack selected the blades, and paid for them via the coupon. They would be delivered to his location soon, via 'airmail' whatever that was.

Miko, looking over his shoulder, commented "Well, I guess that's as good as it's going to get with you. BOORIIING."

Jack looked at her, screen flickering off, exasperated and a little curious. "Exactly what did you pick?" He asked. She wouldn't be this adamant about him picking something cool, if she hadn't picked something cool herself.

"Look at this," she showed him her screen, "Is this not the coolest thing you've ever seen?"

It was an enormous claw, twice as tall as Miko. It was a dull gray, its description saying that it was salvaged from a mutant monster's hoard. It didn't say what the affinities of the horn were, nor the species it came from.

"Miko?" She hummed, "I think you got duped."

Miko immediately launched into a tirade about how offended she felt that he thought she wouldn't be able to tell when someone was tricking her and that she was very sure that the claw was a rare monster part. Jack just tuned her out, until the last few words she said caught his attention.

"Besides," Miko shrugged, "It looks alot like a Lao-Shen-Long claw doesn't it?"

Jack had no response to that. If it really was an elder dragon claw, then it wouldn't be up for grabs. The only way that Miko could possibly get her hands on it, were if it was not identifiable as a claw from one of the dragons.

"Lets just wait until it gets here." said Jack. He was suddenly hit by a thought.

"Do you know what 'airmail' is?"

Miko shook her head, answering, "No, did it say that for your materials too?"

Jack nodded, about to say something else when a shadow suddenly appeared above him. As he turned towards it, the shadow split into a mass of smaller shadows. They revealed themselves to be delivery Wingdrakes, monsters specially trained to deliver packages.

This was the first time Jack had ever seen a wingdrake. He guessed that this would be the 'airmail' that the market website was talking about.

He expected that the drakes would deliver the items they had ordered. He didn't expect them to just fling the boxes in their faces and leave.

But that was exactly what happened. Jack's package was only about his size, so, while it did smack him in the face, he managed to catch it. Miko, however, wasn't so lucky.

Jack looked over the sofa, finding her groaning on the floor, the momentum of her package having propelled her over the back. He quickly put down his package, reaching over the sofa to pull her up. She was a bit dazed, but otherwise unharmed.

She quickly shook off her dizziness, and pulled her package out from behind the couch. It had slightly dented in the fall, but was relatively intact.

"So," she gestured to the boxes, "You wanna open yours first?"

"Alright." Jack responded.

The boxes were made of aluminum sheet metal, so they weren't that strong, hence the dent. They all had a fingerprint scanner on the front though. After the contents of the boxes were recieved, they would be reused, to minimize waste.

Jack touched his finger to the scanner, and the box opened. Inside, nestled in a mound of packing peanuts, were two shining blades the size of his arms. He carefully lifted one of them, suprised to find that they were lighter than his original dual blades. They didn't have handles, so Jack was hesitant in moving them further.

"Cool!" Miko remarked, hopping back over the sofa. "Lets see what I got!"

She slid her box over while Jack put his down. When she opened it, he could see the claw-like object that Miko had proclaimed 'cool'. It was still a dull gray, with pieces flaking off. Jack piced up one of the pieces, and examined it. Finding it to be dirt in every way, Jack turned to Miko, only to find that she already had a sad look on her face. He then decided to cheer her up.

"Hey Miko," she looked at him, about to cry, "It is cool, and maybe you can draw some minerals from it?"

She perked up, saying "Yeah, it is still pretty cool! AND, I'll need minerals for building my weapon. Thanks Jack!"

Jack decided to take another look at the claw. It did seem like it was made from rock, but when he went to brush off some more dirt, the entire outer layer of the claw fell away. Both Jack and Miko gasped at the revealed object.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**_After bumping his head into that glacier, James was called Batbird for a week._**

**Jack and the other may seem OOC, but remember, they are still children, and June hasn't lost her husband yet.**


	5. Teams and Secrets

**Disclaimer: Transformers Prime and the Monster Hunter franchise do not belong to me. I only own the storyline and my OCs.**

**Normal: "..."**

**Machine Speaking: "..."**

**Flashback/Others Talking Over a Comlink: "..."**

**Important Points/ Significant: "..."**

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The claw-like object was revealed to be a black shard of bone, most likely a fang or a horn. Regardless, it was definitely the bone of a Mutant or an Elder Dragon.

Jack could tell, because of the glowing blue markings on the bone. These were sure indicators that there was power in the bone.

Normally, when a monster is killed, it's power is stored in its densest parts, such as its scales, claws and horns. There is a chance that the power would form a gem within the beast, however rare that was.

The power would then stay in the parts until a hunter uses it, where the power amplifies the hunter's attacks, or when time erases it forever.

Like a charged battery, the monster energy inside their parts does not just disappear. However, also like a battery, monster energy can dissipate in time, with only the strongest of monsters able to resist the effect. The stronger the monster, the greater its affinity with the elements, thus, the greater the ability to hold onto its power, even when deceased.

The bone looked to be from a mutant, with how it practically glowed with light. Jack couldn't tell which species it came from, but at least Miko would be ecstatic.

"This. Is. SO TOTALLY AWESOME! It isn't from a Lao-Shen-Long, but it GLOWS."

Jack asked her what she was going to do with the bone.

"I think I'm gonna make a longsword with this. It looks like it should have the lightning element in it, and maybe a water affinity." She suddenly stood up, closing and clutching her box to her chest.

"Well, I'm going to go find out what this is. Have fun with your swords!"

She bounded off towards her room, where a flamethrower, and a full chemistry set where surely waiting.

Jack decided to follow her example, packing up his blades, and toting the box back to his room.

After going inside, Jack went to a medium sized worktable with a screen and a pad for delicate objects and put down the box, grabbing a pair of work gloves in the process. He opened the box back up, and put on his gloves.

Jack lifted the blades out of the box, and set them down on the pad. He would store them with the rest of his materials until he could find a proper binding agent, and find someone to forge the blades.

Jack had seen ancient hunter weapons before, which were made of an amalgamation of metal and monster parts. They would be less sturdy and reliable because of their metal parts, and would require sharpening, which damaged the monster parts. In order for this waste of resources to stop, E.L.D.E.R decided that all weapons and armor must be made from either pure monster parts, or from pure inorganic materials.

It is because of this that Jack had to wait to craft his blades, or find someone else to do it. In ancient times, one would have used metal to stick the parts together, but not anymore. The crafter of the failed blades used a high-grade binder to meld the Elder Dragon horns together. Jack only had access to low-grade binder, which would not work on the blades.

The amount of power that is stored within a piece of material determines how powerful a piece of equipment is, but it also increases the strain on any weak points. Low-grade binder would work on the least powerful of monsters, able to handle the power levels, but would start to crack when being used to stick parts of higher power together. This is because the elemental discharge and exchange between the various parts would destroy the binding at a molecular level, effectively vaporizing it.

This is also very dangerous for the wielder. In a best case scenario, the weapon would just fall apart, leaving you vulnerable to monster attacks. In a worst case scenario, the conflicting energies in the weapon would vaporize the welder. Metal is a very good conductor, which is why this didn't happen in ancient times.

Not to mention, Jack didn't have the neccessary expertise needed to craft with Elder Dragon material. He would need to go to a master technician in order to even have a chance at forging it.

Jack sighed, putting the box near the door. It was impossible for him to achieve right now. The funds that master technicians charge for forging was exorbitant at best. He would never afford it with the rewards he gained from newbie missions.

He wrapped up the blades with a large piece of canvas, making sure not to cut himself. He opened his closet, walked in and put the blades with the other materials. He took off his gloves and tossed them on the worktable, closet door closing behind him.

Jack slid onto the bed, star-fishing on the mattress. He looked out of his window, which was right over a Class-1A containment zone, brightly colored fish swimming in the large pool. He looked up, able to see the large clear dome that made up the ceiling of the entire base. He seemed to recall someone saying that it was an Elder Dragon scale shed, though it would have to be huge to shed so much skin.

The sun was beaming down from the dome, and his arm-screen said it was noon. It would soon be time for lunch in the living area.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack walked back into the recruit living area, toting his, now only filled with packing peanuts, box.

The living area was already crammed with people, all lining up in front of food dispensers. At lunchtime, they would become activated, and a recruit would just have to scan their fingerprint to receive their meal, varying from person to person. This way, all recruits can stay healthy with no confusion as to which menu they were following.

Jack lined up behind some older recruits, looking for his friends. He spotted Aalexi lounging on a couch, already eating her meal. Miko was eating with another recruit Jack didn't know, waving her arms around, almost falling over in her enthusiasm.

It was finally his turn, after the people in front of him made their selections. Jack scanned his finger, and the screen flickered to the food choices. It was more of a calorie based selection than anything else, with three options: Prep, Expedition, and Diet. Checking his arm-screen, Jack made sure that he had a training session scheduled, before choosing the Diet option.

The machine whirred, and a compartment opened to reveal a paper bag. Jack took the bag and walked away to find a seat. Aalexi seemed to be exuding a dark aura, keeping everyone away, Vince was nowhere to be found and he didn't exactly fancy a face full of crumbs, courtesy of Miko. He decided to just sit on a smaller couch away from everyone. He didn't mind, it gave him more time to plan out his equipment designs anyway.

Jack didn't know many people, and preferred being alone most of the time. He sat down and opened his bag. In it he found a grilled chicken burger, a packaged salad and a bottle of water. He started eating, watching everyone go about their business.

There were several upperclassmen near him, and he accidentally overheard some snippets of their conversation.

"Hey, ... department are you going?"

"...hoping for Wyvern, but ... good too."

"...want to ... guard duty?"

He didn't hear much more after that. They seemed to be talking about the different divisions of E.L.D.E.R. Wyvern is the containment division, while one could only be a guard at Hydra, the science division, or at Leviathan, the Armada division.

After finishing his lunch, Jack picked up the bag with his trash in it, and went over to the disposer. The dispensers only used biodegradable items, so the disposer would directly dump the trash into a composter.

He then went back to his room. After washing his hands, he picked up the delivery box still sitting by his door. There was a return station currently at the living area, and it was where Jack and the others were meant to drop the boxes off. They would then be cycled back through the delivery system, and hit even more people in the face.

After tossing the box onto the trailer, Jack looked back at his screen, checking his schedule again. It seemed that he had an hour to digest before having to go to Elemental Defense and Counterattack training, where you basically had to dodge laserbeams and shoot paintballs at the person shooting you with laser beams. It's harder than it sounds. Each session usually had about seven to eight recruits, and only one person dodges lasers at a time. Guess what everyone else was doing.

Jack decided to go back to his room and watch some more documentaries about Elder Dragons. They were fascinating creatures, all in possession of the power to shake the continents. The fact that even these powerful beasts were not immune to the virus is a matter of great concern.

Entering his room, Jack plopped down on his chair and turned on the screen attached to his worktable, flipping to a video about Lunastra, Teostra and their hypothetical offspring.

When it was ten minutes till training, Jack got up and straightened his uniform. Walking out the door, he thought about the world of monsters, and how lucky he was to be a part of it.

-.-.-.-._ timeskip -.-.-.-_

It was now two weeks from when Jack had taken his placement test. The team selections were about to be posted on a screen in the recruit area screen. The private scores and evaluations would be broadcasted to their individual arm-screens.

When Jack came back from a training session, all of the year 04 recruits were crowding around the three enormous screens in the recruit lobby, while older recruits looked on with mirth.

Some were whining about their team members while others were bragging about them. They were usually talking about each other. There was some commotion from some of the recruits, but Jack didn't know what that was about.

Jack decided to wait out the crowd, opting instead to sit on a couch and view his scores and evaluation.

His screen flickered on, and a notification popped up stating that his scores were in.

Jack clicked on the notification, and it took him directly to his record page.

Bypassing his training records, Jack directly jumped to the placement test scores.

_Student 57 of T04, Enigma Insight, has performed sufficiently. He lacks the brute strength of his comrades but uses the flexibility of his weapons to inflict large amounts of damage. Needs to work on evasive maneuvers, and requires at least a Mid-rank weapon to maximize potential._

Jack skimmed over the actual scores, noting how he had almost full marks in most of the categories, and went right to the 'Suggested Improvements' section.

_Student 57 is to report to defensive maneuver courses as soon as possible._

Jack groaned, more work for him. He kept reading.

_Is to be issued flying wyvern blades by the end of the week._

Jack was surprised at this one. Flying wyverns weren't rare in the slightest, though their bodies were tough enough that smithys would charge more than usual to make weapons from their bodies. He continued reading.

_Permanent secondary long-range weapons required._ _Weapon pickup at briefing room 238-B._

Jack nodded with understanding at this last one. Though not his specialty, Jack was good enough with long ranged weapons to use them in place of his blades. Also, because he doesn't have the training to resist monster attacks, loosing the flexibility of his dual blades meant that he would most likely have to fall back.

He decided right then, that he was not going to accept that. He wanted to be able to continue drawing the monster's attention from his team, even if his primary weapons were taken. He would need to be able to effectively block the monster's attacks, which wouldn't be possible with normal long ranged guns. He would need both hands free to wield his blades, and the extra weight of even a light bow-gun was not something he could afford. Jack pushed his thoughts away for later.

The crowd in front of the screens had thinned, so Jack decided to go and take a look at his team. As he got closer, Jack noticed something about some of the teams. They were short one member, and had a 'supervisor' in their place. Judging by their identification numbers, the supervisors were official hunters at least four years older than them.

Jack moved closer to the screen searching for his identification number. Miko interrupted him before he could do so, dragging an exasperated Vince along with her.

"Dude, we are all on the same TEAM! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!", she yelled right into his ear.

Jack felt kind of bad for Vince. He was probably there when Miko found out the news, and will most likely have to see a nurse about hearing issues. He heard Vince mumble out a "terrific" before noticing something peculiar.

"So, who's our missing teammate?" Miko started to bounce on her feet. That didn't bode well for his general well being.

"Only one of the most AWESOME hunters in the universe! He's one of only twenty Class-S hunters, and is half your dad's age!" Jack frowned slightly at that comment. "No offense, your dad's amazing." He retained his stoic look. "Now he is going to be acting as OUR SUPERVISOR!" She squealed in excitement. "I heard that he can slay an Elder by himself! Did you know he's got a pair of halk named Vulcan and Helios? I've only seen them in pictures and they are HUGE. Like, twice the size of your average halk huge. I think he said that they were found in an Elder's cave. Do you think it was the same one he defeated? This is so COOL! I think he also uses a scythe that has a detachable blade. I've never seen-"

Jack took a step back, head spinning from Miko's enthusiasm.

"Wait," She looked at him, unimpressed. Vince had removed himself early on in Miko's rambling. "-so who IS he exactly?" She gaped at him. "You never said his name," Jack quickly added.

"How could you not know him?" Miko asked incredulously, "He is literally the poster boy of E.L.D.E.R." She then waved her hand, gesturing to the screen they were standing in front of. "You might as well look for yourself."

He stepped closer to the screen, searching for his ID. He saw the numbers sitting next to the ID, '001-Rs02." Slightly underneath the number, was the code-name: **Silver Siren**.

From what Jack knew of the Silver Siren, he was a sixteen-year-old prodigy. Not many knew where he came from, and the few that did were sworn to secrecy. He was surprised that someone who was a legitimate Class-S hunter would volunteer to supervise and train a bunch of rowdy recruits. He certainly would not want to be around the equivalent of four Mikos every day.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. "Where's Aalexi? She should be here as well." Jack asked while looking around for her. Miko shrugged, saying "I heard she was reassigned to an official post in Hydra. Lucky, we won't get official positions until graduation." Then she looked up and smiled. "At least we get a cool new mentor."

Before Miko had the chance to say anything else, the intercom buzzed.

"All supervisors to year T04 students are to meet their teams in the headquarters main hall. All year T04 recruits assigned supervisors are to head to the main hall immediately."

Miko immediately grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him towards the elevator shafts. The hallway was crowded with people, though it wasn't as bad as Jack was expecting. Somewhere along the way, Vince had made the mistake of coming too close to Miko, and was now being dragged alongside Jack.

They squeezed into an elevator, someone hitting the button for the third level. After the elevator doors closed, and started descending, Jack could feel someone's elbow jammed into his stomach, and someone else slammed into his back. Somewhere behind him, Jack could hear Vince shouting, over the noisy racket of other people screaming at each other, for someone to get their hand out of his face. The elevator stopped moving, and the doors opened to let a flood of hyper teenagers pour out. They all began to rush to the headquarters' dome, competing to see who could reach the doors first.

The supervisors, who were already there, watched on in amusement behind the headquarter's dome. Until they realized the young recruits weren't stopping. The recruits almost ripped the doors of of their hinges, with some supervisors having to literally dive out of the way.

Miko, who had somehow retained her grip on both Jack and Vince, came flying through the door along with at least 100 other people. As she ran towards the startled mentors, Jack and Vince managed to right themselves. Vince, however, managed to right himself in the wrong direction, tripping all three of them. They all fell in a pile on the well-polished floor, sliding towards a flight of stairs.

They came to a stop, and Jack's head stopped spinning enough for him to tell that a pair of white and silver boots were in front of them. His eyes moved upwards, settling on a concerned face looking at them.

The stranger had bright white chest-length hair, and shockingly gold eyes. He was wearing a customized off-mission uniform that marked him as one of the elite. There was a silver rathalos symbol in the middle of his chest, replacing the recruit cross symbol Jack was wearing.

Looking up at the face of Silver Siren, Jack could hear the small, 'oh no', Miko squeaked. They were so doomed.

**-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-**

**How was it? There won't be too many OCs, in case you are wondering. I need to fill in the personnel gap somehow, and TFP does not give a lot to work with. I probably won't be killing anyone off. Yet.**


	6. Tracking

**Disclaimer: Transformers Prime and the Monster Hunter franchise do not belong to me. I only own the storyline and my OCs.**

**Normal: **"..."

**Machine Speaking: **"..."

**Flashback/Others Talking Over a Comlink/Muttering: **_"..."_

**Important Points/ Significant: "..."**

**-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-**

"Need a hand?" Silver Siren smiled and leaned over, offering a hand. Miko took it, and dragged herself off the floor. She was still holding onto Vince, so he was dragged up too. Without the weight of two people pinning him down, Jack scrambled to peel himself off the floor, and patted off the non-existent dust on the front of his uniform. The other recruits were too busy gushing over their mentors to pay much attention to them; something Jack was grateful for.

Miko mouthed a 'sorry' to both Jack and Vince, while the boys looked at her, slightly annoyed. Silver Siren looked at them in amusement. He then cleared his throat, bringing all three of their attentions on him. He held out his hand, saying "Silver Siren, of the Raptor Special Ops year 02. You can just call me Silver. Nice to meet you."

Jack, seeing as Miko was too starstruck to answer, and Vince was too busy glaring at her, shook his hand and introduced themselves.

"H-hi. I'm Jack, that's Miko, and the guy next to her is Vince. We're from the Trike Recruit class of 04, but I think you already know."

His smile widening, Silver replied, "Well then, I hope we will work well together." He paused for a moment, then, making a quick motion similar to enlarging objects on a touchscreen, conjured up a hologram showing his contact information.

"I figured, if we are going to work together, we might as well be able to contact each other.", he was quick to explain.

Miko snapped out of her daze, arm-screen, which Jack had learned was actually called a Widget, flickering on as she scrambled to add Silver's contact numbers into her database. Jack and Vince followed suit, albeit in an slower manner.

"We can each send you messages, so you can add our numbers into your contacts.", Jack offered quickly, knowing that Miko was about to burst with questions.

Silver didn't seem to notice Miko's anxious atmosphere, simply nodding and waving the hologram away.

Jack and Vince saw Miko move forward, towards Silver, and subconsciously moved back.

"So, Silver?" He hummed in response, "I've been DYING to meet you! How do you keep your hair so smooth and shiny? Is it true that you have both a dragon and lightning halk? They are so RARE! They're really big too, aren't they, where did you find them? Is it true that you used a scythe to take down an elder? How do you use a scythe anyway? I know it's similar to a staff, but yours can SEPARATE. How do you control it? It must be very taxing-"

Vince pulled Miko away and covered her mouth. Jack turned from observing their ensuing squabble, to addressing a stunned Silver.

"Sorry, she can be a bit ... excitable." Jack said sheepishly, while rubbing his neck.

"Well," Silver shrugged, "no harm no foul, right? I do have a training regimen that I need to get to, so I had better get going."

He walked off in measured steps, boots tapping on the polished marble floor. Jack breathed a sigh of relief, and turned back to the squabble, which had, by now devolved into a cat-fight. Jack laughed dryly, feeling a little exhausted. He went over to the tussling duo, somehow managing to drag each other onto the floor, and were now wrestling.

Jack grabbed onto both members' shirt collars, and yanked them up and apart. They finally noticed Jack and his disappointing gaze, and quickly turned to face him. Miko began whistling while Vince was refusing to look at her. Jack just sighed, and told them to get back to the recruit's area if they had nothing to take care of first.

"What about you, Jack? Where are you going?" Miko asked, while Vince walked back to the elevators.

"I'll just be a short while, I need to pick up some new weapons from room 238-B. You go on ahead." Miko nodded, running after Vince while waving over her shoulder.

Jack smiled, waving back, before heading up the flight of stairs. He headed into the hallway that the stairs led to, rooms lined by number. Since the room number started with a '2' the room must be on the second floor. The ending of the room number was a 'B', so the room was to the right of the hallway. The rooms with an 'A' ending would be found on the left side. The hallway itself was arranged in a snail shell shape, with one corridor bisecting it to allow for easier access. Room 238-B was not too far in, so Jack decided to take the long way around.

He soon arrived at the door, which looked like the door to his room, but with marble coloring. The sensors scanned him, and the lights blinked green before the door slid open to reveal a weapon room. There were some personnel, most likely some tech students roaming around and taking inventory. Jack paid them no mind as he went to a large dispenser in the back, which looked similar to their food dispensers. It was connected to all of the weapon racks, and could pull down various weapons using rolling mechanical limbs that were connected to the racks.

He pressed his thumb on the fingerprint scanner, and the machine lit up. The screen lit up with three options: _Retrieve Dual Blades, Retrieve Bow-gun, __Exit_. Jack chose the first option, and the screen flickered off. The whirring of mechanical limbs drew Jack's attention. He saw an arm reach to grab a pair of red and silver dual blades, while another arm grabbed a pair of scabbards for the blades.

The arms traveled inside the weapon racks to the dispenser. The dispenser was meant to make sure that the weapon being distributed was in good condition. It does this by performing x-rays on the weapons, and checking their structural integrity.

Jack heard a beep and a compartment in the dispenser opened. Beside it, Jack could see the blades through a glass door. They were sheathed, and already strapped to a standard issue belt. The screen flickered on, a _PLEASE DISPENSE ORIGINAL GEAR _written on the screen.

Jack took off his original belt, with the standard issue blades already on it. He double checked to make sure that everything had been removed from the belt, before placing it in the compartment. He closed it, and heard the machine whir as it processed his original gear.

A green light flashed near the screen, and the glass in front of the new blades popped open. Jack quickly grabbed the belt, securing it around his waist. He slid one of the blades from it's sheath, and examined it.

It used a large fang the size of his forearm as the blade, and had red scales lining the top and the cross-guard. The pommel was coated with several large, silver scales, with the grip being made of a red piece of hide. It was a very nice blade, and Jack was still suprised the administration* would just give it to him.

_(administration means the people who run Trike headquarters)_

Jack turned and exited the room, waving back at some of the tech students who waved at him. He leisurely walked to the elevator, checking if he had anything on his schedule. There was a low-risk team mission scheduled, though Jack still had three hours left between then and now, with nothing to do.

He decided he may as well go grab lunch. There would start to be lines in arpund two hours, and Jack didn't feel like getting cramps from an undigested meal in the middle of fighting a monster. He walked into the recruit area, only seeing a few recruits in the vicinity.

He walked up to a dispenser, this time picking the option 'Prep'. Jack picked up the bag containing his meal, and headed back to his room, not feeling the urge to get flattened by the crowd.

Entering his room and turning on a video detailing the different types of mutants currently known. There were so many different types of mutants, from monsters that grew stronger from a hunter attack, to those that were born with the power to rend cities asunder.

He dug out his lunch from the bag, this time containing a box of chicken nuggets, a small container of fruit salad, and a sports drink. He was going to need the calories for the upcoming hunt. It was going to be his first time working with Silver, so he had to be in tip top shape. He sat down and started to eat.

Soon, time came for Jack to meet up with his team to come up with a plan for his mission. He quickly changed into his mission gear, strapping on his new pair of blades. He also equipped his distraction kits to the belt. The kits contained everything Jack would need to pull the monster's attention away from everyone, and onto itself.

After making sure that his gear was on properly, he put on his helmet, and locked it into place. Taking one last look at the mirror in the bathroom, Jack hurried to the elevators and headed down to headquarters.

The assigned mission did not have a briefing requirement, because of its low danger rating. It was advised that Jack make a plan with the others, since they weren't used to working with Silver.

He found his teammates in the lobby area, standing underneath the staircase. From Miko's exaggerated hand gestures, they all seemed to be discussing something.

"Hey guys, any new plans on how we're going to take down this beast?", Jack asked.

The mission details only told so much. All Jack knew about the mission target, was that they were targeting a Yain-Kut-Ku, in a low-risk area plains area. They still needed to form a plan on how to take it down.

"I bet Silver's got LOTS of PLANS! Don't ya Silver?" Miko nudged Silver's arm.

He shook his head, hand scratching the back of his neck. "I am supposed to evaluate your progress, and protect you guys from any rouge monsters in the area. For example, while you deal with an alpha monster, I would take care of the rest of the pack. I however, cannot interfere with the main objective."

"Aw..." Miko said, but then perked back up. "Well, at least we still have time to figure this out right guys?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. _timeskip .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-._

Jack was sitting in another transport, this one boasting a coat of light blue and pale yellow scales. They were currently flying over a large field of grass at subsonic speeds. Looking out the window, Jack could make out the silhouettes of grazing aptonoth on the field below.

"Landing sequence initiated. Please standby for touchdown."

"Oh COOL! Hey Raf, check it out!"

"Miko please, stop it before you get whiplash."

Jack, tightly gripping onto his harness, glanced over to his left. Miko was bending out of her seat and pressing her face onto the glass. Raf was trying, and failing to tug her back. Jack, whithout letting go, reached over and tugged Miko back, right before the transport started to lower altitude.

_"That was close",_ Jack muttered, having the breath nocked out of him by the decent.

Miko was no worse for wear, still smiling and whooping with exhilaration. Even Jack had to admit, the transport felt like an overcharged rollercoaster and was AWESOME, as long as didn't punch him in the gut everytime it accelerated.

"The transport has landed in the designated drop zone. Please standby for diagnostics on the surrounding area."

The transport touched down on a grassy plain, and Jack glimpsed a herd of horses nearby before they ran off. The plain was surrounded by bushland and a few trees scattered here and there.

"Diagnostics complete. Please disengage personal safety equipment and exit in an orderly fashion . . .

Before he could see more, Jack was pulled out of his thoughts by Raf, who reminded him what they were here for by tapping his harness. Jack quickly slipped out of the safety measure, and unstrapped his blades from the floor.

Jack then hurried to the exit ramp, pushing past the rest of the recruits to get to his team. Raf was waving at him with Silver, both just waiting for the go-ahead, though Miko was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, have you guys seen Miko? She's supposed to meet us here." Jack looked around, not seeing any trace of her.

They waited for a while, the crowd exiting the transport dwindled until just one other group was left. Then, Silver caught sight of Miko speeding towards them.

"Sorry I'm late," she shrugged, "the lock on my longsword got stuck."

"So," she exaggeratedly looked around, using her hand to shield her eyes, "where's Birdy?"

Raf pointed towards a patch of trees that lie on the side of a hill.

"We were just about to head out due east, towards the 'hilly' part of the forest. That's where the little birdy is roosting."

"Then let's go now!", Miko exclaimed enthusiastically, "The other teams are probably finding their monsters by now. We don't want to be left behind!"

"Wait, Miko...!"

She then ran off in the direction Raf was pointing to before Jack could stop her.

Jack sighed, it was to be expected. "Come on," he called to the others as he followed Miko's trail, "This is the first time we'll encounter a flying monster, and I don't think Miko has thought that far ahead."

He entered the woods, muttering to himself, "**_Hopefully she's not monster chow._**"

* * *

They eventually found Miko observing a burn mark along a stretch of trees. The burn mark seared the ground by the trees as well, and was still crackling of draconic energy.

"It looks fresh," Miko commented, poking at the area with a stick, "but definitely not from our bird."

There were giant footprints near the site as well, each around twice Jack's size in diameter, and each a foot deep.

"Hm...m..." Silver walked over to the prints, examining them, "These look like the prints of a Deviljo. Strange to see the first clues of it here, though. Deviljo does not like being subtle."

He walked over to the trees, lightly touching the scorched bark, "It seems that it is marking its new found territory. We should be cautious, recruits like you should not be going up against high class monsters yet-"

"-and Deviljo is one of the worst. After marking its territory, it'll probably start to comb through it." Raf finished.

Everyone but Silver looked at Raf, suprised.

"What?" He asked, pushing up his glasses, "It's literally my job to read about various monsters all day, and I get bored reading about low-class monsters."

"Nevertheless, we must get moving. The Deviljo will surely survey its new territory, and we want to find our bird before then."

Jack checked on his arm, the GPS flashing to life. There was a blinking icon marking the location of the bird flashing on it.

"Looks like a ten minute hike up that hill."

Jack pointed in the direction of a sparsely wooded clearing, heading straight up. There seemed to be a sort of psuedo-path going through it, Jack could barely see it though the undergrowth surrounding it.

"Well," Silver looked up the path, "Might as well start hiking."

None of them noticed the crackling footprints that led through the trees.

* * *

**I LIVE****I'm not dead, just having too much work on my plate **


	7. Beware the Sparrow

**Disclaimer: Transformers Prime and the Monster Hunter franchise do not belong to me. I only own the storyline, new concepts, and OC's.**

**Normal: **"…"

**Machine Speaking: **"…"

**Flashback/Talking Over the Comms: **_"…"_

**Important Points/ Significant: "…"**

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

_"Why can't Nyre come along?"_

_Jack looked up at his father, waiting for an answer._

_"Well, champ," he kneeled down to be on Jack's level, "How would you feel if you didn't know or see anyone that you know, and being stuck with another species?"_

_Jack wrinkled his nose, "That doesn't sound very nice."_

_"Exactly. Nyre is going to a training area for the duration of your 'boarding school' years, where he will get to learn with the other Halk about how to fight, hunt, and generally behave like a Halk. He has only ever known Valkyrie," he looked at the silver-white Halk currently sitting pretty on the couch like she owned the thing, with Nyre trying to get her to play with him, "Who is not quite the standard for how a Halk should act, and how one should look. Nyre needs to know his own species Jack," James looked at him, and patted his shoulder, "We can't take that away from him."_

_Jack looked at the young Halk currently flapping chaotically around a still sitting Valkyrie, chirping and chattering at her, and understood. Nyre needs friends, just like him._

_"Ok dad, I get it."_

"-arth to Jack."

"SNAP OUT OF IT!'

Jack jolted out of his reverie, finding Miko looking at him with a strange look on her face. They were currently nearing the top of the hill; Jack having been lost in thought during the hike. They were resting in a small patch of grass to catch their breath; they were going to continue to climb in around 10 minutes.

Jack looked around, finding Vince and Miko, who sat back down next to him, conversing about something or other. Raf was examining the footprints and taking notes in his wrist-mounted computer. He also found Silver talking to himself near one of the trees that were near the resting spot. Jack began walking towards him, curious to why his supervisor appeared to be talking to thin air, catching snippets of the conversation as he proceeded towards him.

"Get …… task force……..herb-….ick up."

Silver turned, and, noticing Jack, motioned him to wait while he finished talking.

"Note that there is a Deviljo here. I'll try to test it soon, but the recruits are here to practice on it's turf."

A pause.

"Yes, it seems to be unusually energetic, be sure to prepare for a Mutant high-class threat."

Some muffled sounds.

"Yes this is Training group

Another pause.

"Alright, I'll proceed with the training then, be sure to warn the others."

Silver tapped the side of his head once, and then turned to face Jack.

"Now that that's settled, there are some things you guys need to know." He gestures for their group to gather around.

"The reason we are able to track the Yain-Kut-Ku is because we've encountered it before. We suspect that it may be harder to deal with because of the experience, so be careful. Don't just charge in there without a plan."

"Ok Silver!" The group replied, and Jack turned to Raf, who had come over during Silver's explanation.

"You'll be staying away from the fighting, right?" Jack asked Raf. Silver turned away from the group and focused on the Deviljo tracks. Peculiar, there shouldn't be this much energy in a normal 'Jo.

Raf nodded, saying "I'll just be watching you guys from a distance. I have to record the monster's attack patterns and catalogue them. Those agents say that I'm too young for any type of over-exertion." Raf pouted at this, seemingly upset at the idea of being told that he was too young to help.

"Raf, gathering data on monsters is helping a lot of hunters devise strategies to take them down. You are helping a lot and- "Jack didn't get to finish his sentence, as Miko, suddenly popping up behind them, slung her arms across their shoulders and nearly knocking them off balance.

"Don't sweat it Raf!", Miko exclaimed, "I'll bet that when you get to our age, you'll be an expert at hunting without having to make the same 'oopsies' that we made." Raf smiled at that.

"Thanks guys, though we have got to get moving, we don't have all day." Raf gestured to the path leading up the hill. It was a little misty, so it was more difficult to see any details on the track than normal.

Jack agreed and called to Miko and Vince who were loitering nearby. They set off on the path up the hill, and soon reached the top, where some large stone formations were stacked on top one-another. It looked more like an old abandoned ruin to Jack than any natural formation.

Raf assessed the stone formation and looked at his GPS. Jack followed suite and found that the Yain-Kut-Ku was indeed on one of these formations.

'Well then,' he thought, 'Time to start climbing.' At the same time, Raf remarked "That's really tall."

* * *

On the way up, the team found traces of the monster they were after scattered in various nooks and crannies along the formation. On a jagged piece of stone, they found a bit of scale shed and some dried purple fluid. Raf examined the residue, scraping some for testing. They stumbled upon some rough stone surfaces with obvious claw and beak marks on them as they were nearing the top.

The winding path came to an end near a large stone platform, littered with scraps of stone and various weeds. Off to the side, there was cave entrance large enough all four pre-teens to head inside shoulder-to-shoulder with room to spare. Silver and Raf retreated to the top of one of the spires littering the sides of the platform.

"Alright team," Silver's face popped up on a hologram generated by their computers, which Jack had learned was called a Widget, "We'll be watching over on this rock spire. We can't interfere in your first hunting assessment. Good luck, recruits."

The holographic screen flickered out of existence, right as the cave sounded with a roar.

Jack, Miko and Vince quickly dived behind one of the stone pillars, just as the Bird Wyvern came out of its cave. It seemed to be sleepy, and unhurriedly stepped into the sunlight. As it was sunbathing, Jack recalled the plan.

_"How about this," Miko suggested, "I go up to taunt the bird and you guys sneak over while it's distracted, and surprise it! Then I can go and WHAM, BANG, and BASH it, and-" _

_Jack stopped her at this point. He agreed that sneaking up on it was the best option, because it was way bigger than anything that they had faced before, but he didn't feel as if Miko knew how big a Bird Wyvern could be._

_Vince commented that "Maybe you should blind it first. That way Jack'll be able to get above the bird without it trying to tear him apart. And Miko?" Miko looks up from her nails, "We'll be in charge of tripping it."_

_"ALRIGHT!" Miko exclaimed, "Go Team!"_

_Jack just remembered something, calling out "Guys remember, we can't say our plans this time. This wyvern has had human contact before and may understand anything we attempt to say. So stick to the plan ok?" _

The Wyvern was facing away from them, wings tilted towards the sun.

"I need to get in front of its head to blind it.", Jack whispered, and began to sneak over to the rock pillar near its left wing.

While doing so, he caught a glimpse of Miko and Vince splitting up and hiding behind the pillars near the bird's hind legs.

'Good', Jack thought, 'they're in position.' He took out a small black sphere from his belt and twisted it. Immediately, blue symbols flashed on its surface, showing that it was in an active state. Jack quickly lobbed it at the Yain-Kut-Ku's face, and ducked back into his hiding place. The symbols on the ball turned from blue to red just as it hit the wyvern's face, causing the wyvern to open its eyes. Just as it did, the ball erupted in a flash of blinding light, causing the wyvern to screech in surprise and pain, as it's veins began to shine a sickly purple.

Jack rushed at the wyvern, using his glue-gun to shut the Yain-Kut-Ku's mouth before it could attract more attention.

While the wyvern was distracted with Jack, Miko and Vince took the chance to charge at the Yain-Kut-Ku, each scoring a cut along its wings.

Jack had swung himself ontop of the wyvern's head and slashing at its sensitive ears. Upon noticing his teammate's movements, his eyes widened with horror, quickly yelling out "MIKO, VINCE, the wings resist cutting! Go for the LEGS!"

They were quick on the uptake, but not quick enough. The Yain-Kut-Ku, reacting out of instinct, forced its wings outwards, clipping both hunters under the chin and tossing them away, purple veins pulsing. The blindness was also wearing off, and the wyvern blinked a few times before its eyes focused on Vince, who was blown right in front of it.

'Oh no you don't,' thought Jack, as he decisively sheared off one of the Yain-Kut-Ku's ears. The wyvern thrashed in pain, as Miko helped Vince get up. They then both rushed the wyvern and hamstrung the bird. As the bird collapsed, all three hunters quickly retreated out from under and on top of the bird.

Vince, seeing that it was down, charged at the Yain-Kut-Ku's throat, stabbing his great-sword through it. Jack and his teammates all thought that the wyvern was slain, and so retreated to call a transport.

Just as Jack was turning, he saw a giant claw heading for Miko's head! He quickly tackled her to the ground, feeling the wind from the claw rush over his head. 'Close one.' Jack thought as he and Miko stood up and spun towards the Yain-Kut-Ku.

"What in the world is going ON? It's been hamstrung, it shouldn't be able to stand!" Miko yelled as she sprinted out of the wyvern's way.

With its throat was bleeding profusely, the wyvern was miraculously standing. The veins on its body swelled, glowing as the wyvern charged towards the hunters, slamming its beak down on them.

Jack instinctively dodged the strike by the skin of his teeth, thanking old Jack for taking dodging lessons. He ended up on the left side of the wyvern and decided to do something crazy.

Jack scrambled up the bird's wing as he yelled for Vince and Miko to distract the wyvern.

"On it." Miko shouted, then turned with Vince to taunt the wyvern. "Hey, over here bird brain!"

Vince also joined in, shouting "No, over here you overgrown chicken!"

As the wyvern was suitably distracted, Jack made his way down to its head. Pulling out a length of metal cord from his belt, Jack managed to stick one end in the glue holding the wyvern's jaws shut before he was dislodged. Jack held onto the rope for dear life as the wyvern swung its head around in an attempt to crush Miko and Vince.

Luckily, it didn't seem to notice him, so Jack climbed back onto the raptor's head and latched the other end onto the other side of the wyvern's mouth. At this time, the wyvern swung its head back preparing for another smash, once again dislodging Jack. But this time, Jack held onto the rope and stuck his blade through the Yain-Kut-Ku's back, while wrapping the rope around the dagger, so that the wyvern was forced to bare its throat.

Miko and Vince took this chance, coming from opposite sides to slash at the wyvern's throat and chest, leaving gaping wounds in their wake, all leaking purplish blood. Jack jumped down from the wyvern's back, bolting out from its attack zone.

The Yain-Kut-Ku, not hindered by its wounds, swung its body around, throwing both of Jack's team members to the ground. As if powered by pain, the Yain-Kut-Ku snapped its jaws free of the glue and roared.

It then tried to get to Jack, but the amount of blood it lost took its toll. The Yain-Kut-Ku collapsed where it stood, blood pooling around it.

Jack, followed by his teammates, slowly approached the wyvern. As they got to its head, they found the blood to be losing its purple color, turning back into red. The wyvern was also looking at them.

Jack reached out his hand near the wyvern's head, and the wyvern moved to meet it, thanking him for releasing it from the hold of the virus. Miko and Vince followed suit, each paying their respects to the dying flying wyvern.

When the wyvern breathed its last, its body began to glow, and a geometric white-blue crystal began to grow from its chest. It was about the size of a fist, and, peering into it, Jack thought he could see a silhouette moving in it.

"Wow," Miko whispered in awe, staring at the stone.

"For once, I agree." Vince whispered back, not taking his eyes off the crystal.

"Hey guys, that was amazing!" The hunters turned to see Raf rushing towards them. They went towards him and saw Silver walking towards them.

They started to tell Raf their version of the events and showed the strange crystal to Raf and Silver.

"Well, it looks like a **Soul Stone** to me. These things are very rare, and only appear under very specific circumstances. You can't keep it though, E.L.D.E.R keeps all material from rookie class missions."

"Aw, but its so pretty," Miko whined.

Jack was inclined to agree with Miko but drew his attention to getting a scale that was knocked loose during the fight. He saw one on the ground, glittering in the soft light. He examined it for a purple shine and when it had non, he pocketed the scale.

The rope that Jack used to subdue the wyvern was covered in purple fluid, so it must be sent along with the carcass to decontamination. Any contact with the substance will invariably lead to an infection in the hunter that touched it. However, should a normal human touch it, they will be fine, and will not spread the disease either.

He rejoined the group, noticing how Vince and Miko were acting out the scenes in Miko's story, and soon heard the sound of jet engines closing in on their location. He did fail to notice that Silver was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Back at base, Jack, Vince and Miko split from Silver and Raf, with the former having to go to a debriefing, and Raf having to head to his next class. Since Raf is currently eight, he is still required to take the basic classes that all young students need to take, though he wasn't like the pre-teens, and also needed to go home at the end of the day. Jack and the rest of year 04 were in a boarding school setup, and would be until they graduated at age 16 to become official members of E.L.D.E.R. Of course, that didn't mean that they weren't allowed to see their parents, its just that most of their time would be spent training and learning.

After a well-deserved shower and a fresh uniform, the trio sat down on one of the sofa sets that were strewn around the general living area, checking their Widgets for the update on their last mission.

Jack had learned how to pull up a hologram now and pulled up the mission page. There was a new page there, holding his results.

_Enigma Insight, Scythe Serenade, and Redstone Reaver have completed the first hunt under Silver Siren. Feedback is not available for this hunt. Rewards: One weapon of choice._

_Reminder: Student – 57 is required to pick up a ranged weapon_

'Oops,' Jack thought. He had intended on getting the light bowgun earlier, but then there was training, and then the whole mentor fiasco, and he just didn't have a chance to remember it let alone retrieve it.

Well, at least he can use his reward to exchange for one. Light bowguns, while having a resemblance to common guns, are actually quite different. The bowgun family uses the energy from the soul stone or power crystal inserted in the barrel to launch a projectile, thus requiring round without any propellant. They are quite effective at long range, and since Jack has to move around a lot, he cannot be weighed down, thus the decision to go with a light bowgun.

Tapping on the link provided by the page, Jack switched to a screen detailing almost every weapon one could think of.

Narrowing the search to include only light long-range weaponry, Jack soon came upon an interesting blaster model. It looked too sleek to be a normal bowgun, and it didn't have an ammo slot. He clicked on it, discovering that this particular bowgun was recently developed by Hydra to serve as an alternative to bowguns that need to be reloaded constantly. It was constructed using a mesh of different bones and was covered in the hide that boasted red and light green scales. The description said that it was powered with a series of power crystal taken from various monsters. At the very back of the barrel there was a soul crystal, that was responsible for generating the blast of energy that formed the very core of the bullet.

"Hey, you're making better choices now Jack. Much cooler than the other one that you made.", Miko remarked as she stared over Jack's shoulder, Vince on his other side.

Jack decided on this bowgun, and redeemed it, noting the 'airmail' tag with apprehension. The last time he got something delivered, he got smacked in the face, and this package was much heavier than the other one.

"So what are you guys getting?", Jack asked Miko and Vince.

Miko proudly displayed her holographic screen, which showed a large but lightweight shoulder-mounted stunner. This device shoots out ammo that explodes into bright light whenever it hits its target. With it came a small device meant to be worn on the user's ear. Jack's own purchase had included one of these as well. These things were apparently used for aiming at their targets, projecting a small holographic screen upon which the aiming reticle is displayed.

Unlike Jack's own purchase, Miko's choice was made of steel and carbon-fiber instead of monster parts and needed ammo.

"So what did you get Vince?", Jack asked Vince, who fiddled with his screen for a bit, before revealing a new gunlance. Like Jack, Vince's choice was made from monster parts, and was also complimented by various power crystals to amplify the power of the gun, and to power the transformation.

"I was training to switch to a lance for a while now," Vince explained, "and now I have the chance to test out the results of my work. I am also going to take over the role of tank, so I'll be needing a shield."

Soon, the mob of wingdrakes came once more, flinging packages at people all around them. Jack had just remembered to be prepared for a box to come flying at him when it hit him right in the stomach. It knocked the wind out of him and made it so that he was unable to pull Miko down when she tried to stand up to get her package.

The result? Miko was knocked down to the floor, though at least this time she was sitting upright instead of star fishing out on the floor. Vince was by far the unluckiest. A full-sized gunlance was taller than the average adult, and probably weighed a lot. He ended up sprawled behind the sofa, the impact having driven him up and over the back of the sofa.

"I'm ok.", Vince groaned.


	8. Speak of the Deviljo

**Disclaimer: Transformers Prime and the Monster Hunter franchise do not belong to me. I only own the storyline, new concepts, and OC's.**

**Normal: **"…"

**Machine Speaking: **"…"

**Flashback/Talking Over the Comms: **_"…"_

**Important Points/ Significant: "…"**

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Jack had never noticed that Silver disappeared when he and the others were waiting for a transport. Let us take a glimpse of what happened in that time.

* * *

Silver silently slipped away from the group, sneaking back to the last place he saw the Deviljo footprints. The prints were still crackling with dragon energy, which Silver began to follow deeper into the forest.

The prints eventually led him to a small clearing behind the hill where they were earlier. There, smack dab in the middle of that clearing was a smaller individual of the Deviljo species. It was sleeping, snorting out little puffs of red dragon energy every few breaths.

It was a standard dark green color, though it lacked any visible battle scars, indicating that it was indeed a juvenile. The prints did match the size of this brute wyvern's feet, so there was no doubt that this is the Deviljo that he was after.

'It really is a pickle,' Silver thought as he observed the sleeping giant. Even a juvenile was bigger than large semi-truck.

He and the other operatives of E.L.D.E.R. cannot really predict where the monsters will show up, or what kind of monsters they will be, even though they know where the spawn points are. This is because the spawn points are just names to call places that have weak spots in the dimensional fabric, thus granting monsters easier access to this world. That means that they can pop up anywhere, though they just tend to appear near the spawn points the most.

Now that he had identified that this was the pickle he was after, Silver just had to determine whether this pickle was infected with the virus or not. Not every monster that crossed over to their world is infected, and the researchers at Hydra have yet to figure out what causes this distinction.

In order to ascertain if this monster is infected, Silver would have to get its attention, which means he would have to wake it up. Ok, not that difficult to do, and if it has a virus then it will begin to show signs of the purple infection as it rages towards him. If not, then it will simply rage towards him. Oh well.

Silver took out a small slingshot and, picking a stone off the ground, shot it towards the sleeping wyvern's face. Immediately, its eyes shot open, blood red in rage. It got up and ROARED, spewing draconic energy everywhere.

Silver was careful to remain undetected as the Deviljo sniffed around, looking for an intruder. While looking over his hiding spot, Silver noted that the Deviljo did not show any signs of being infected: no purple veins, no purple miasma, and no tint in its scales. Now that that was determined, he picked up a small, modified bowgun loaded with tranquilizers potent enough to take down several bull elephants. Unfortunately, as he took aim at the wyvern, the metal happened to tap against the rock he was using for covered.

The Deviljo immediately turned around and charged right at the rock. Silver skillfully dodged the charge, taking aim and shooting a dart into the wyvern's neck.

The thing about shooting tranquilizers at monsters, is that it does not knock them out, but only makes them less prone to attacking and more lethargic.

The Deviljo spun around to face Silver, obviously getting sleepy, no longer wanting to attack Silver. It took a few steps before plopping down on the ground right in front of him, looking at him warily. Don't be fooled, it could still attack if it wanted, but it less likely to do so out of impulse. Very useful for a Deviljo.

Silver, stowing away his bowgun and taking care to be as non-threatening as possible, approaches the monster's head. It was only a juvenile, after all, so it would scare more easily than its adult counterpart.

He set his hand on the enormous wyvern's snout, comforting it. At the same time, Silver tapped the Widget on his arm, sending a message that there was an uninfected juvenile brute wyvern at his location. They would take it away to a Class – 5 containment zone where other dangerous monsters were located. These locations would have their own specialized ecosystems, in order to give these creatures a second chance.

The reason why the transports don't just airdrop hunters into position, is because, in many cases, the hunters will not have an exact fix on the coordinates of the monster, and will sometimes have to hunt it down for days by tracking it. This means that recruits like Jack need to learn how to track very early on before the quests become too dangerous.

When the heavy transport arrives, the Deviljo is completely calm, not seeking to snap at anything. Once the shuttle lands, personnel immediately start unloading an Aptonoth carcass, causing the Deviljo to get up and walk over. Everyone steps back as it swallows the carcass in one gulp.

"Alright, that should do it for now," Silver told one of the technicians, "let me see if I can get the big guy into the ship."

The wyvern was sated for now, and there were at least three more such carcasses in the transport. A heavy-duty transport is enormous, and the only way for it to land, was to have it have long fins that allowed the transport to bypass the trees.

The Deviljo was successfully coxed into the transport by the scent of food, with the personnel leading the great beast into a holding cell prepared for a monster with a Grade – 7 danger rating.

'Well, my job here is done.' Silver thought, turning back in the direction of the stone platform, 'Time to rejoin the recruits and head back to base.'

Silver managed to get back right as the transport came, without any of the recruits noticing he was gone at all.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**This is a mini-chapter. Fear not! A full one is on its way.**


	9. Reunions

**Disclaimer: Transformers Prime and the Monster Hunter franchise do not belong to me. I only own the storyline, new concepts, and OC's.**

**Normal: **"…"

**Machine Speaking: **"…"

**Flashback/Talking Over the Comms: **_"…"_

**Important Points/ Significant: "…"**

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Vince got up with his package and heaved it onto the sofa. Jack looked on in mild interest as Vince opened his package.

In it was a large lance and shield, colored a mix of dark bronze and dark red. The shield seemed to have a very large-scale half the size of Vince acting as the base, with a bunch of smaller scales lining the front of the shield like roofing tiles. The lance had a similar outward appearance, though it only required ammo if a special effect were desired, otherwise it would fire energy blasts of various attributed much like Jack's own weapon. One could switch the attribute by changing out the eight power crystals that lined the lance, which were currently of the fire attribute.

Contrary to Jack's expectations, the barrel of the lance was not located at the tip, but at the 3/4 point down the body of the lance. It also had a handle and trigger that were retractable and would pop out if one touched a button on the handle. Vince found that out by attempting to grab it without looking closely at which part he was grabbing.

The handle nearly clocked him in the face, and his subsequent glaring at it made Miko and Jack chuckle

Jack turned his attention back to his package, opening it to find a blaster the size of his entire arm. It was coated in a myriad of tiny, glistening bright red and light green scales. There were ten power crystals, 5 on each side, lining the length of the barrel. The original element of the blaster is electricity, and currently fires paralyzing and explosive rounds. After turning it on using a switch at the end of the blaster, Jack found that he could switch between the rounds by twisting a disc that was located at the beginning of the barrel. When the blaster is set to paralyzing rounds, the previously invisible circuits lining the barrel would shine a bright yellow, and set to explosive rounds, it would shine a pulsing orange.

After testing this out, Jack turned the blaster off, slung it across his back, and both he and Vince looked towards Miko curiously, silently asking to see her weapon.

"Alright! My turn.", Miko said as she touched her fingertip to the print scanner, opening it to take out a relatively small backpack-looking device. She then proceeded to put it on, fitting the shoulder-mount to her own back.

Looker closer, Vince suddenly exclaimed, "Hey, this thing looks weird," and proceeded to press a small glowing button on the center of the backpack.

"VINCE! What did you DO?" Miko shrieked as the metal started to move, garnering strange looks from other hunters, but not more than usual.

The backpack began to shift, metal pieces contracting and expanding, until Miko was covered in a layer of armor. It resembled a slightly bulky skin-tight suit, with a helmet and vizor. It was a matte black in color, and had pink circuits running along the seams. Jack thought that this was curious, as the backpack had glowing blue sigils. The shoulder-mounted cannon had transferred over, staying mostly the same.

"Whoops," Miko said sheepishly, examining her arms, "guess I didn't read the fine print."

* * *

After putting all the packing peanuts back into the aluminum boxes and deactivating the suit of armor, Miko remembered something that happened which she thought was strange.

"Hey guys?" Both boys looked at her.

"Did ya'll notice that space and time didn't warp when we fought the birdy? What's up with that?"

"I dunno, I didn't really notice anything unusual.", Jack replied.

Vince, on the other hand, seemed to think differently.

"I'm not sure about the time-space thing," he said, "but I did see some weird crystals nearby when this all happened."

Jack hadn't noticed any crystals, and Silver was probably too caught up on the Deviljo tracks to notice the anomaly. Vince had good binocular vision, so that may have something to do with it. Of course, Vince was also known for mistaking colors and shapes ever so slightly. The clouds and mist that day made it difficult to see very far in front of them, so even if there was anything suspicious, Jack wouldn't have been able to notice it.

"Are you REEAALLY sure about those crystals, Vince? It could have just been some random pile-a'-stones that happened to catch the light in the right way for you to think 'OOHH, SHIIIINYYY'- "

Vince cut Miko off indignantly, saying "Hey, I KNOW what I saw, and it was definitely a dark blue crystal- "

"I'm not questioning what YOU thought YOU saw, I'm questioning what it would look like, TO SOMEONE ELSE!"

At this point, the arguing was turning into a shouting match, with these two looking like they really want to throttle each other.

'So this is what happens when you stick a Miko and a Vince into a metaphorical cage: they'd have killed each other with yelling before anyone came to get them.' Jack chuckled a few times at the image in his head, coming out of Lala-land only to find that Miko and Vince were still going at it, with a few people placing bets on who would win the argument

"Don't they have anything better to do?", Jack muttered to himself. At least there were less people interested this time around.

He did believe in Vince's words though; the strange crystals he had seen could explain why time and space didn't distort to cover up their movements this time. While hunters can see monsters, normal humans can't, but both can see and feel the damage that they cause. This means that if a monster spawns in a populated area, it could potentially destroy an entire series of buildings and kill hundreds before the hunters could get to it. Hunters are trained to react instantly to neutralize these threats, hence the extremely fast transport shuttles which train them to adapt to rapid g-force changes.

Actually, changing the subject of his thoughts, Jack was wondering if he got the right choice with the weapon pick earlier. He needed to be very light in order to move around the monsters' attacks, and to fling himself from the ground onto their backs. He decided to examine it again, noting, like the first time that it was surprisingly light.

'It must be because there isn't any ammo.', Jack decided. Ultimately, while this is a solution to his current lack of a long range weapon, it realistically wouldn't be practical in the long run; as the monsters get more powerful, as a DPS dealer, he needed to be as fast as possible because he had less armor than the others. While not heavy, the large gun will cause him to lose his agility, which is deadly.

After examining the blaster a bit more, he concluded that either he will need to find wrist-mounted weapons, or he would have to make them himself. Well it wasn't a half-bad idea to design them himself; with this new blaster, Jack could model the new ones after its design, making bullets unnecessary. There weren't many wrist blasters available for purchase, and there certainly weren't any in the selection that the previous quest provided. All of their designs needed to have some kind of ammo to shoot, but as a dual blade user, Jack needed to be in constant motion, making it inconvenient.

Maybe he could get Raf's help here. He'd probably know which monster parts fit best with this design. Though all hunters were required to take the education courses, there was a limit to how much each person could memorize. Raf was a genius in this regard: the kid had almost no limits on how much knowledge he could memorize.

It was going to be time for dinner soon, so Jack just resolved to design the on his Widget screen. He volunteered to take the boxes and packing peanuts back to a recycling chute near the entrance of the lobby in the meantime, managing to snap Miko and Vince out of their little glaring contest. 'Somewhere along the line, they must have run out of insults and were now just glaring', Jack thought as he dumped the boxes into the recycling chute. They didn't put the boxes that they got for their materials in the main chute, because those materials are typically more delicate, and most people would take them to their rooms in the boxes.

* * *

Soon, the vending machines in the back of the lounge were activated, making a very conspicuous sound. Having checked his schedule, Jack confirmed that there weren't any missions or training sessions and made his way to the machine. When it was his turn, Jack scanned his fingerprint to reveal 2 choices: Diet and Standby. Since he had just gotten back from a mission and was pretty hungry, he chose the Standby option.

There were a total of 5 options in the E.L.D.E.R. database, namely Prep, a medium portion of medium calorie food for short hunting missions, Diet, a small portion of high calorie food for training drills, Expedition, a full pack of rations for long tracking missions, Standby, a medium portion of low calorie food for people not doing extensive exercise, and Sustain, the tiny but incredibly high calorie rations reserved for fighting calamity-class monsters. Jack chose the Standby option because he was hungry but was not low on blood-sugar.

Choosing to go back to his room to eat, Jack said goodbye to Miko and Vince who had chosen to stay and went back to the boy's wing

It seems he has some work to do.

* * *

_At age 14, Jack has become quite a proficient hunter, and his team has slain every monster the organization threw at them. Finally, the time has come for the class of T04 to graduate from recruits to fully fledged hunters and they will be put on probation. In two years, it will be time to choose their posts at either Hydra, the Science division, Wyvern, Exploration and Containment, or Leviathan, the Armada division. _

_Most of the new recruits will want to be a permanent hunter (meaning that they will always be hunting down monsters and won't be doing much else), though there is a selection process for this. Recruits that are not picked will go to be guards at Leviathan, assistants or researchers at Hydra, or retrieval personnel at Wyvern. _

_Those who become permanent hunters will first be stationed at Wyvern facilities, and, if they meet certain requirements, get transferred to Raptor outposts all around the world. Raptor is the Special Operations branch of ELDER, and only takes in those who are C-Rank or more. They are the main force of active hunters in ELDER._

_The head of ELDER is called Draco, in which resides the Commander, the Warlord, and the Innovator. These three figures control all of ELDER and have distributed authority over the types of personnel working there. The Warlord is head of all tactical assaults on large monsters or monster populations and is the one who heads the army of hunters into battle. The Innovator is head of all the researchers in ELDER, and is in charge of approving different projects, fields of study, and other major decisions. The Commander is the effective head of ELDER, controlling the direction that ELDER turns in times of turmoil and in major decisions._

In these two years, Jack has hunted down dozens of monsters, sometimes in his own team, sometimes alone, and sometimes in a random group. He, along with the other members of his grade have been slowly but surely racking up successful missions. This will determine their placements in the near future.

Now that the preliminary group training exercise has been completed, these recruits will soon be probationary hunters with official grades. They will still be a part of Trike and under their protection, but these new hunters will be considered official hunters and be given their first official grading.

This is very important because a hunter's rank will determine the types of missions that they can go on, what types of gear they are qualified to purchase, etc. Standard grading goes from A to F, with those that can take down a Class – 6 monster or above on their own being considered an A class, and those that fail to take down a Class – 3 monster on their own being classified as F class. As you can assume, the lower grades will fail to gain access to more difficult missions and materials. This will make it harder to progress further in ELDER, and these low-ranked hunters will eventually go to different paths.

The hunters that do qualify for a Rank – C or above can become part of Raptor, granting them a permanent place in the main fighting force.

One thing that most people tend to forget about ELDER:

**It's not just about the kill, or the weapons gained from them. ELDER is Earth's last and only defense against these infected monsters, and even uninfected ones can be unwittingly provoked into killing off a population. It is also ELDER's responsibility to give these uninfected monsters a second chance to live their lives. It isn't about the benefits, it's about the preservation and protection of both Earth and the monsters.**

Being a part of Raptor means putting one's life on the line for the protection of the denizens of two worlds, so everyone that is qualified to join must be able to access the necessary resources to stay alive. It may not seem it, but Earth constantly has new monsters being launched into the various biomes. The uninfected monsters were in the vast minority, so most of the monsters were to be culled before they could harm anyone.

Jack knew that 'with great power comes great responsibility', as his dad told him when he asked about the systems ELDER had in place. Raptor's hunters may get more resources, but they were tasked with the hardest missions, and to investigate disturbances.

Well, no new hunters were going to go into Raptor, and they will need to be accepted as permanent hunters first.

Jack's team were hoping for Wyvern, as were most of the other probationary hunters. Aalexi was transferred to Hydra after their first hunt and Raf was no longer a newbie, but a recruit.

'The selection process is still two years off, so we still have some time before we are separated from this training facility.', Jack thought.

The promotion from recruits to probationary hunters is traditionally accompanied by a graduation party of the recruits' own design. The Trike instructors knew about this, obviously, but didn't do anything to stop it. After all, they were young once too.

Jack was pretty excited about the whole thing; just think, they would soon be able to go on official missions and actual explorations! Like, actual explorations that can last for days on end, exploring the vast reaches of the world where no one has been before!

"Hey Jack!" Miko came up behind him and slung her arm across his shoulders, "Aren't you excited about graduation? I think the others are planning something big, but they won't tell me. I wanna heeelllpppp."

In the past two years, all of the people in Class T04 have grown, with girls having the height advantage. Miko was now around a head taller than most of the boys in their grade, including Jack.

"Maybe its because the last time the party planners asked you for help for the decorations, you ended up drenching the entire hall in paint."

"Hey!" Miko pointed a finger at his chest. "We do not speak of the Paintball Incident. Ever."

"It wasn't my fault you thought that paintballing the banners would be faster than painting them. Or that you chose a paintball gun meant for an adult." Miko whacked him over the head.

"Anyway, what are you doing Jack?" She prodded at him. The entirety of Class T04 was helping with the party and dance, with the exception of Miko.

"I'm in charge of convincing one of the Song Birds to perform."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!" Miko leapt in front of him and gaped at him. There were a lot more people looking in her direction than usual, even for when she is yelling.

"They asked you to do that and YOU AGREED? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get ahold of any of them? The only ones we knew were Silver and Aalexi, and one is at a facility in who knows where and the other, is right behind me isn't he?"

And she was right. Silver was standing right behind her with a bemused expression on his face. While the people of class T04 all got growth spurts, Silver seemed to turn from a relatively scrawny teenager, a to toned young man. His hair was shorter now, only reaching his shoulders. He was dressed in a different uniform this time: a white-blue and hexagonally scaled bodysuit, with large silver scale armor guards on top. He had an earpiece, and there was a silver dragon printed over the suit.

"I heard that T04 wanted a Song Bird to perform for their graduation?" Jack, the one responsible for recruiting Silver, stuttered, trying to remember his convincing argument while not looking like an idiot in front of technically a superior officer.

"U-uh, yeeaaaAAH! Yeah, the people planning the graduation want you to perform for the party and the dance. You think you'll be able to come?", Jack got his act together and asked.

"So, are you able to come Silver?" Miko piped up from beside Jack.

"I think there is gap in my schedule around that time. And, I've brought some backup." Silver stepped aside to reveal Aalexi, who has grown to be taller than Miko. She wore a white lab coat over some light armor consisting of a black bodysuit with forest green metal armor plates. She had an earpiece like Silver, but also had a pair of goggles in her platinum blond hair.

"AALEXI! YOU'RE HERE! Whats with the getup?" Miko squealed, having missed their old classmate.

"Did someone call for a performer?"


	10. Graduation

**Disclaimer: Transformers Prime and the Monster Hunter franchise do not belong to me. I only own the storyline, new concepts, and OC's.**

**Normal: **"…"

**Machine Speaking: **"…"

**Flashback/Talking Over the Comms/Thinking: **_"…"_

**Important Points/ Significant: "…"**

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The term 'Song Bird' referred to those of the Song Bird lineage that possessed the ability to lull monsters to sleep, or confuse them. Some of the Song Birds were rumored to be able to impower others through their voice or their music, but most dismissed it on the grounds that there wasn't any evidence. Since Silver Siren's identity was top secret for confidential reasons, it was pure speculation that he was a Song Bird. Aalexi didn't have the same confidentiality issues, so her full name, 'Aalexi Amphiptere Adler' proved her ties to the Song Bird lineage.

"Silver said that you guys wanted Song Birds to perform for the graduation party this year." Both Silver and Aalexi looked at Jack for conformation. He was the one in charge of recruiting the stars of the show, after all.

"Yeah, we decided to pull you guys in this year, instead of using pre-downloaded songs. We figured it would be cooler to…" Jack suddenly realized that he really shouldn't compare them to a mixed tape, and so looked over at Miko for help.

"In the meantime, do you want to look around the base? I can offer a full tour, on the house!" Miko didn't wait for them to answer before dragging Aalexi off with Silver following with a slight smile.

* * *

There really wasn't even an official ceremony for the graduation: just the headmaster of the T-2 Trike base coming to say a few words to the class that was graduating, T04, and the class coming in, T06. The best part was the party that was happening later.

The entire student lounge was decked out in graduation and inauguration banners, and there were wingdrakes and halk toting around streamers and balloons near the ceiling. Personally, Jack had no idea how the other recruits pulled this one off. They hadn't even managed to delegate tasks properly:

_"Hey you! Er, Jack!" Jack turned around to find a skinny-looking teen with brown hair and roundish glasses running up behind him. The girl seemed to be part of the tech-student program, which put more emphasis on scientific and mathematic breakthroughs rather than beating up monsters. All recruits wear the same uniforms, so Jack could only guess that she doesn't have mandatory training sessions, because she was still panting from trying to catch up to him._

_"Hi," she looked at Jack, "I'm from the people planning this year's graduation ceremony."_

_This year, Jack hadn't paid much attention to who was in charge of preparations, being generally unaware that there was supposed to be a planning party._

_"Ok," Jack said slowly, "Do you need something?"_

_"Uh, Ye-ah, why else would I bother leaving my lab- I mean my room and trying to find one knucklehead in a sea of knuckleheads? Anyway," she continued not seeing Jack's awkward expression, "the Boss told us to find a Songbird for the performance, and I said 'Wait what? I must have bone-dust in my ears, I thought you said SONGBIRD? As in one of the people from the main branch of the 13 great families?' and she said yeah, so here I am."_

_"Well that was, a very thorough explanation. What does that have to do with me."_

_"While not seen in public very often, a lotta people know that Silver and Aalexi are part of the main family. Silver, we know 'cause it was on his records, well, the part that wasn't classified. Aalexi because her parents directly admitted her into the 'family line' whatever that means. Anyway, since you had contact with both of these people, and was the first one I saw since stepping out into the light, I figured I could ask you to rope them into this. Good Luck!" With that she zipped off before Jack could say a word._

_"WAIT! AALEXI IS IN A DIFFERENT FACILITY AND SILVER IS… she's gone. Unbelievable." Jack sighed._

_They could have at least told him about this a week ago, when he asked if he could do anything by asking in the Widget chat-room._

Now that he thinks about it, there was literally no mention of ANY of this in the chatroom.

Oh, well. Ignorance is bliss. Speaking of bliss, Jack didn't seem to have anything else on his schedule, what with the training and expedition sessions being canceled with the impending graduation.

He wondered what the others were up to.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It was official. Miko was BORED. With a capital B.

There was nothing to DO around here. She already went to the party-people, but after the last paint incident (which is not to be spoken of) no one wanted her anywhere near the decorations, the wingdrakes and halk, or the paint. ESPECIALLY THE PAINT. They were still cleaning it off the lounge ceiling (How did it even get up there, Miko was nowhere near the ceiling-WE DO NOT SPEAK OF IT), so she was also banned from the splatter zone until they were done cleaning.

She had just given the grand tour to their two resident stars, and they wandered off to negotiate how much of their time shall be spent setting up a party for hyperactive teenagers.

One thing to know about Miko, was to not let her get BORED. Things happen.

Speaking of which, Miko had just found where the science division kept their wingdrakes.

_HEHEHE… _(Crashing and squawking noises)

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Vince was just chilling. Like Jack, he didn't have anymore training classes, and was happy to relax without anyone (mostly Miko) trying to bother him.

Did you know that the Class-1A containment zone near the boy's wing actually doubled as a swimming pool? They don't let newbies, or kids under 14 in for obvious reasons, so Vince had no idea until an upperclassman told him about the swimming pool when Vince asked why he was walking around base half naked.

The large aquarium was actually pretty cool: there were loads of colorful and exotic fish, and all of them were unique in that they weren't found naturally on Earth. Whenever an aquatic behemoth crosses over, they tend to take the water around them as well. That means that there are multiple occasions of otherworldly but harmless creatures getting released into the oceans and harming the natural food chains. Who knows what could happen if something ate them.

Anyway, the fish kept in a Class – 1A aquarium were hardly dangerous. Most of them fed on the plants grown from seeds carried over by herbivores, and the ones that don't, feed on smaller fish.

He dove under the water, admiring the mini reef that the multitudes of colorful fish called their home.

All in all, it was peaceful…until he heard the screeching.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Raf was on his way back into the Trike base. Since he was ten, Raf wasn't in the recruit dorms yet, and was still considered to be a 'newbie'. That meant that he was technically not allowed onto the field, or into the containment zones.

But, as he was considered a young prodigy in the program, Raf was given a special exemption to join observations of various recruit hunts, given that he was placed under strict supervision. He was given a slightly different curriculum than other newbies: where they had to analyze and identify weaknesses on the various monsters of a chosen family, Raf was tasked with creating tools to exploit those weaknesses.

The newbie education system was vastly different than contemporary schooling. The main purpose of this education was to make sure that the students will successfully face massive beasts in combat, and win. The system must also ensure that its students can blend into the outside world, and reach a certain educational standard. There is no tolerance for blatant, disregarding ignorance here.

Even with the strict guidelines, the monsters that cross over are becoming more and more diverse with time, and more and more elements from their world have crossed over with them.

More sightings of Vince's 'glowing blue rocks' have been reported, with some claiming to have seen variants in other colors.

More casualty reports have been flooding in, people going missing on missions and their teammates being too shaken to provide many details. Raf has seen his teachers and occasionally supervisors talking about the situation, getting more stressed by the day.

There have been reports of behemoths rising from the oceans, mysterious calls from the Arctic circle, and massive creatures glimmering in the skies.

Well. More so than usual.

Anyway, what does he know? He's just a kid right?

Raf dismissed those thoughts and turned back to his drawing. Graduation is coming soon, so he will get a room assigned to him, so he was heading to the lobby by tram. To pass the time, he was finishing up a drawing of some flying daggers.

Now you may be wondering, 'why don't you just use bullets and bombs to get rid of the issue?' Well, bullets are too small to effectively harm them, and even their weak points, like their eyes, and coated with a substance that distributes pressure from small points over the whole eye (having developed because these creatures consistently fly faster than most drones) rendering most projectiles useless.

As for the bombs, well. I mean, you try living with monsters constantly breathing fire and divebombing you and not develop ways to shield yourself from them.

Basically, bombs will have more effect on the surrounding areas than the monster in question. Even so, there are hundreds of monsters being brought down every day, and even more being sighted. You would end up with a scorched planet before getting them all.

That, and it would eliminate the chances of any monsters being spared. The monsters that get taken down are infected with what ELDER now dubs the 'frenzy virus' and the ones that are not infected are spared. They live in containment facilities that simulate their old lives to the best of ELDER's ability.

Back to Raf.

_These new blades can reduce casualties by a significant margin,_ Raf thinks. Unlike the other designs, this was his, and his alone. It'll be really cool if he gets them to work but will require some scales and a soul stone from the same flying wyvern to work.

_Oh, we're here._ Raf put his drawing into his signature backpack and hopped of the tram as it announced his arrival at the main facility. His parents were attending to hunter business and couldn't exactly come with him. Raf understood, he just wished that his parents understood the same about him. (That whenever he is doing work, he cannot accompany his parents wherever they want to take him.)

He was expecting the colorful streamers on the passing creatures, but he thought the colorful splatter on the ceiling was a bit much.

He was **not** expecting the screeching.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

_'Darn it Miko! What did you DO?'_ Jack thought as he raced through the various ramps and platforms that made up the base. With him were Vince, Raf, and most of the student population, and they were running from a horde of mini-flying wyverns pecking, squawking, and launching elemental attacks at them.

Jack didn't care, he KNEW Miko was somehow responsible for this. He hadn't seen her since the tour for the two Songbirds, but the space between that and their current problem left just enough time for Miko to figure out how to dupe the security guards, slip through the doors, and get into the viewing chamber. Jack wasn't sure HOW exactly Miko had managed to get the wingdrakes to come out of the enclosure and start attacking people, but hey, at least it makes for a funny story for their superiors to tell new recruits.

Eventually the superiors stopped rolling on the ground laughing and started to calm the various species that were chasing the recruits and some of the newbies around. They dimmed the lights to avoid stressing out the creatures more, and to avoid giving more headaches to students.

Jack, Vince and Raf were with the other students laying on the floor dealing with the loss of adrenaline.

"Hey Vince," Vince looked at him, "where's your shirt? And why are you dripping water everywhere?"

"Swimming pool." Vince responded curtly, still breathing heavily.

Since Raf and the other newbies weren't focused on physical education, they felt the loss more profoundly than the older recruits. They all ended up back in the student lounge, with the severely exhausted being given drinks with grape sugar to perk them back up.

Jack looked over to see some of their superiors grouped around the entrance to the base's office section. (Where the gang first met Silver) Then two security guards came along escorting a drenched, muddy, and scale-covered Miko.

Jack assumed that they were taking Miko in for punishment, likely to clean up the mess that the wingdrakes left throughout the entire base. Because she didn't intentionally harm anyone, Miko would not be punished with time in the brig or cleaning up the drake enclosures, though she will probrably be on .

"Jack!"

Jack and the others were pulled out of their various exhausted states to be greeted by a sea of parents.

June crushed Jack in a hug, with James following close behind. Jack peeked around his mom to see that everyone was getting greeted by their parents in some way.

"Hey Mom. How have you been?" Jack asked.

"Its been great! Your dad and I have been taking on more rescue missions lately. We've managed to save more than a dozen uninfected monsters in the last few months. Though," June looked at her husband who wrapped a hand around her, "I think there is a bit of a decline in uninfected monsters lately."

She sighed, "Only fifteen monsters out of more than a hundred infected. Every one of the infected would screech in pain as the infection inflated their muscles with no regard for the poor creature's skin, bones or internal organs."

Jack's mom was a professional medic, and so was the designated healer for any of her search and rescue, or boss hunting teams. This made her very knowledgeable, and very no-nonsense, but it also made her more sympathetic towards the infected than most others.

To be honest, most of the hunters, including Jack, could feel the monsters' pain. It seemed to be caused by the same reason every licensed, official member of ELDER can see these monster, but normal people cannot.

"Yeah Mom. But at least you rescued some of the monsters, right? That's got to count for something."

June and Jack glanced at each-other.

"Well, yes Jack. A life saved as a life not wasted but…" June hesitated.

Jack looked at his parents, assessing their physical and mental states. June looked more exhausted than usual, and James didn't have his usual pep, appearing quieter.

"Well never mind that Buddy," James stepped forward and clapped Jack on the back, "Today's your graduation! Don't worry about the problems of us adults. Go have some fun."

Jack again looked around, only to find that somewhere along the lines the rest of the students had headed off, clumping into little groups. At some point the multi-colored disco lights had been turned on, making dancing patterns on the walls of the base.

With the commotion caused by the wingdrakes, the superiors had decided to jut let the current head of the facility say a few words after the *_cough_concert_cough* _performance. It seems like an arbitrary decision, considering the teenagers and pre-teens were already tired from running around the base.

On a raised platform Jack saw Silver and Aalexi setting up what seemed to be a holographic system, designed to generate hard-light projections for people with active Widgets in a certain range. Aalexi seemed to see him and waved him over.

Now curious, Jack went over to the platform, only to be dragged onto it and having a remote control shoved into his hands. He raised an eyebrow at Aalexi, who shrugged and said, "Did ya really expect the base to have actual instruments tailored to everyone? It's a light controller; controls the lasers"

Hard-light instruments weren't actually that uncommon, as it is usually easier compared to buying an actual instrument. Hard-light instruments also tend to be void of imperfections, making them sound better as well. Its only because this technology produced very fragile constructions in a very limited range, otherwise it would have rendered the need for weapons, obsolete. Also, they could just have a recording playing instead of people actually performing.

Jack hummed in understanding, testing the controls out on a small part of the lobby. The patterns were cool, yes, but why did they need him to do this?

Jack saw Silver, who himself was testing out a glowing hard-light electric guitar and went up to ask what they needed him for.

Silver answered, "We have to put on a show, and we could use some help."

Ah. Jack was happy to help.

Aalexi nudged him with her shoulder, retorting "We may as well make it a good one, I hardly get out of the lab as it is. Could you call your friends over? They need their instruments as well."

All recruits had learned how to play at least two instruments fluently when they were still newbies. Jack personally played an acoustic guitar and a harmonica. Miko was by far the most accomplished in the musical department in their little group; Jack knew she could play the violin, electric and acoustic guitar, and had heard her play the piano, and a drum set. Maybe she could play more.

Jack found Vince on the far side of the room on top of a stack of chairs, looking over the crowd.

When told of the concert Vince replied, "I'll be down in a moment. Its quiet up here."

Jack found Miko in a new uniform sweeping the fallen scales into neat little piles on the ground. From the looks of things, she was almost done. The wingdrakes really didn't leave much of a mess, and only left some scales on the ground.

"Sure!" Miko said, "I'll help as soon as I dump all these scales into those boxes over there."

She pointed to two large metal boxes marked with the iconic symbol of Hydra. They must be going to a manufacturing plant.

Jack wasn't able to find Raf, but he spotted him as soon as he came back to the platform. Raf was standing, back facing Jack, right next to Silver and Vince, and was sitting in front of what looked to be a desk with a curved screen on top. He seemed to be turning various digital dials, but Jack couldn't be sure.

"Hey Raf!"

Raf jumped a bit and removed his headphones. Jack didn't even realize that Raf had headphones on. Must be the lighting.

"Oh, hey Jack."

Jack curiously walked up to the display that Raf was standing over.

"This is just a digital DJ station. I just got done with the prototype now, but I think you should be able to access the controls from your Widget."

Upon closer inspection, the dials that Jack saw mimicked the design of an every-day DJ station, complete with a faux-disc set.

Aalexi suddenly clapped her hands, getting the attention of everyone on the platform.

"Alright, since everyone is here," Jack looked around to find Vince at the light control booth, "And you have your controls," Jack just realized that they put Miko right next to Raf, '_at least nothing will get destroyed' Jack thinks_, "the stage cues are now all on your Widgets. Have fun! And don't destroy anything."

'Alright,' Jack thought, 'Time to party."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Looks like the rumors about how Songbirds can apply buffs with their voices are apparently true.

Each monster has its own unique frequency, which causes the time disturbances whenever they are agitated, and a hunter has gotten in range. This means that any monster that does not get angry in the vicinity of a hunter will not cause a disturbance. This also means that it is possible for a monster to show up in a massively populated city and wreak havoc and not be visible to normal civilians, as only those with the 'hunter gene' are able to see them. Hunters themselves must be careful when tackling monsters near a populous, as civilians can see hunters, and their weapons, just fine.

On the battlefield, the hunters have the ability to translate this frequency into something they can hear. Through a program on their headsets, hunters can transform the frequencies into melodies ranging from heroic to a full-on battle anthem. That's just how it goes. These songs are colloquially known as the monster's 'theme song'. By using soul stones and imitating the songs heard, hunting horns were able to produce 'buffs' for various hunters on the field.

The party was in full swing, with both SongBirds alternating between modern and classical songs. Songbirds are special because they do not need an instrument to apply buffs to a person. They do it every time they speak, just the effect when singing is much more apparent.

Right now, Aalexi was singing a pop-song and granting a fitness boost to everyone in the Lobby, with Silver playing the guitar and Raf playing DJ.

Turns out you only need to program some settings into the light controller before the AI figured out that the lights are timed to the beat.

Now, Jack was free for the evening. He looked around for everyone else, as the AI on their own devices had probably relieved them of duty.

Vince was standing next to some of the veteran hunters and was listening to some of their stories while playing with a brown halk. Miko was also nearby, running around with a bunch of halk hatchlings playing tag.

Now that he thinks about it, Nyre was supposed to get out of training with the other halk today. Halk younglings are trained from the moment they are fledged; the mini-dragons going to the equivalent of monster boarding school until either their assigned hunter graduates from recruit status to hunter status, they have a guarantee not to bite anyone, or when they get adopted. That last one may not apply if the adopter is still in the recruit or newbie phase of their training but can be allowed for certain occasions.

_"Attention rookie hunters!"_

Everyone in the lobby turned towards the entrance. The director of the Trike facility 02 has made his appearance, accompanying a hologram of the Commander, official head of ELDER. The hologram is showing a pre-recorded video made for the graduates of 2004. This is so that the Commander can address all of the Trike bases, without having to open up a live channel which can cause security concerns.

The director looks like an average looking man in his late 40's but is in fact a tier A Hunter. Hunters are arranged into tiers, based on their accomplishments and battle prowess. Better hunters get allocated more resources, but get assigned to more dangerous and pressing missions, meaning that they will have less time to prepare but have less missions. The hunters of ELDER do not get paid in a traditional sense. Each rank of hunter gets a monthly salary based on the value of their contributions, and a material allocation based on their rank. This is so that the system evens out: a hard-working B Rank Hunter can earn as much as a non-active S Rank Hunter. An S-Rank also does not get many missions in the first place, so it motivates them to work.

Currency used in ELDER is a type of digital coin classified in bits. This is because there is no individual country that ELDER is stationed in. Because of the technology levels that ELDER has achieved, it has many subsidiary companies that provides enough funds for ELDER agents to operate in the normal world. The economy in ELDER is self-sustaining, as it produces its own food and energy, so it does not need a currency with anything backing it. The currency is basically a stand in for trading materials, and daily necessities do not require payment.

The Commander is an elegant woman, and a seasoned S rank Hunter. She is arguably the most experienced hunter in ELDER; many claiming that she has lived through the last Cataclysm over 100 years ago.

Jack remembered that bloodlines did stuff like that from a lecture that newbies got in their first week. There were originally thirteen different bloodlines in the old hunter's guild, and everyone at ELDER could trace their ancestry back to these bloodlines. That is how they could see the monsters after all, but those with stronger bloodlines begin to gain more abilities like shifting and elongated life spans.

It is said that the progenitors of the bloodlines were monsters themselves, fighting against the bringer of the disease. Their descendants followed in their footsteps, paving the way for legends of great battles between heroes and evil monsters.

_"Recruits of year 04. Today, you move up to become official members of ELDER! It will fall upon you to defend both the Earth and the monsters from the grasp of the Frenzy Virus!"_

Jack noticed that the Commander was in an office of some sort, but it more resembled something out of a sci-fi flick than an office. The camera wasn't focused on the background, so Jack couldn't get a good look.

_"Both students of battle and science shall uphold this duty. _

_Science Rookies shall be located into one of five Hydra research centers, and each pick a profession. You may choose the path of tech development, or research the deadly Frenzy Virus, or maybe even go on to become one of the venerated Phoenix Smiths that forge the most powerful of gear._

_Hunter Rookies are the backbone of ELDER. You are now automatically part of the reserve forces for Leviathan, to rise when the next Tide of Monsters washes upon this planet. In two years' time, you will choose between the hunts and explorations of Wyvern, gathering materials and samples for Hydra, and becoming an active soldier unit in Leviathan. Perhaps, in time, you will grow strong enough for Raptor, where we conquer the greatest of threats._

_Remember, you are official members of ELDER now. Do not forget that._

_Newbies, you will now embark on the same path that these new hunters have taken. Be prepared for new missions, explorations and experiences. Soon you too will stand here as new members of ELDER._

_FLY HIGH AND SHINE BRIGHT!"_

The rookies, now fresh hunters, and the newbies, now rookies, cheered and whooped in excitement and exhilaration. Aalexi and Silver started playing an imitation of the Rathalos theme, with people starting to go back to what they were doing. 'We are hunters now!' Jack thought gleefully, as he saw Miko rise up from the crowd yelling something about being 'free from the curriculum'.

Suddenly, Jack could hear squeaking and wheezing sounds coming up behind the director. It was the Halk! They seemed to be forming a giant swarm near the top of the dome, but Jack's own halk slammed into him before he could take a picture with his Widget.

"Hey Nyre!" Nyre lept onto Jack's stomach and licked at his face, very happy to see him again.

"Alright boy, you're crushing me!" Jack said, pushing Nyre off of him. Nyre chattered at him but did move off. Jack took the chance to get a good look at his old friend.

Nyre was a lot bigger than before, with a wingspan twice as wide as Jack was tall, which was above average for a halk his age. His scales now shimmered with a blood red glow, and he had red luminescence trails at his sides and on his wings. His horns were no longer little nubs. Now they had grown into a protective crown with four lining his brow and jaw line, and two facing forward like a Diablos.

"Wow, look at you!" Nyre wagged his tail at Jack. "You're so much bigger. And heavier too." Nyre tried to nuzzle Jack with his head, nearly skewering Jack with his horns.

"Whoa, watch the horns!" Jack said while nudging Nyre's head away from his face. He patted Nyre's head instead and stood up to observe everyone else.

He sees Miko hanging out with a group of people, which Jack thinks is her family, and as Jack watches, a bright red and orange Halk flew down from the ceiling to rest at her side. Nyre dashed towards this new playmate, and Jack quickly followed.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Miko was happy to se her parents again. She hasn't seen them since they went on that trip to an uncharted island to track down a strange monster. They could be a bit traditional though, so she tends to avoid long conversations, like any teenager is wont to do.

"Miko dear, how are you doing? We haven't seen you in such a long time." Miko's mom asked, approaching her and hugging her.

"I'm fine Mom!" Miko said, trying to disentangle herself from the embrace.

Her dad was standing behind her mom, sort of smiling but not really.

"How have you been doing on the counterstrike maneuver? I remember you had a hard time with it before, so you must practice daily." She let go of Miko and brushed her off.

"I know you have your new job as a hunter, but you must remember to refresh your memory! Wouldn't want to end up in a ditch like last time-" Miko cut in, "Alright! I'll do it! And it was one time, just ONE TIME that wasn't even my fault! There was this stupid konchu, and a cliff and-"

"No excuses! You must practice!" Miko's mom held her by her shoulders, saying "You are not a student anymore. It is not just you that you are now responsible for."

Miko's dad finally spoke up, "Your mother is right Miko. You are a hunter now and have greater responsibilities, but I do believe that congratulations are in order, right Kaida?" He poses that last part to Miko's mother and she takes the hint.

"Yes, yes Hakaku. Congratulations on becoming an official protector of humanity, Miko. Remember that with great power comes great responsibility, and make sure to maintain your skills! Do not-" at this point her mother was being ushered away by her father, who distracted her with something about a 'Bickering Pride'? Probably nothing important.

_"Squawk!"_ A large adult fire halk landed by Miko's side and greeted her.

"Hey ALDREL! I haven't seen you in, like, forever!" Miko exclaimed while petting his head. Aldrel is a rescue and is from the monster's world. It is very uncommon for halk to survive an encounter with an infected monster, simply because they have a severe disadvantage in the weight department. They develop the required strength and ingenuity in ELDER's training courses, but those were created through generations of harsh training, ingrained enough for old halk to pass on the information to the younger generation.

"Miko look out!"

"Oof!" Something heavy just barreled past Miko, knocking her down to the floor.

"Need a hand?" A hand appeared in front of Miko, and she grabbed it, pulling herself up. Jack, making sure she was ok, ran off after his wayward companion, who was chasing a disgruntled Aldrel around the lobby.

Now that she thought about it, she knew Jack had one of these mini-wyverns but had never seen them before. Seeing that Jack had successfully convinced his halk to stay still and stop tormenting her poor stoic partner, Miko rushed over to get the details on what she presumed to be Jack's partner.

"Hey Jack! I haven't seen your partner yet, what sub-species is he?" Jack's halk looked like either a dragon or a very cool hybrid between lighting and fire, with its glowing red highlights and glistening black scales.

"His name is Nyre and I'm not too sure about that, actually." Jack reached over to pat his halk's head, the halk leaning into the touch with its tongue lolling out.

"He was a gift from my dad, who found him out in the wild. When we took him to the wyvern specialist to get his checkup, they could only tell us that he was a male, skinny for his age, and that he was not part of the same lineage as the halk we have at base. He is from a completely new line, and we have no way to know his elements without seeing him perform the attacks."

"Oh well, at least you'll be surprised. That is, if the monstie you're fighting doesn't deck you first." Miko smiled innocently when Jack looked at her annoyed. Nyre came up to her for some head scritches, nearly stabbing her shoulder.

"Whoa!", Miko exclaimed as she shifted away from the crown of horns.

"Yeah, he likes to shove his head towards people for pats, and we didn't know he would have horns when he grew up, so we didn't do anything. _Nyre, watch the horns!" _Jack whisper-shouted when Nyre swung his head towards him for some pats.

"Well, its not Nyre's fault he was born to have horns, or that he is an adolescent who is just as big as an adult. Just look at the comparison between him and Aldrel. They're practically the same size and Aldrel isn't a normal halk either!"

Jack looked between the giant puppy next to him and the stoic halk standing right by Miko, and said "Yeah, I see that. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess."

Miko agreed, "Well duh, that's what I said. Anyway, I heard Raf was moving into the dorms today?"

"Yeah," Jack answered, walking over and scratching Aldrel on the head, "He's moving into dorm number RB-74-T08 today. We can maybe pay him a visit later I guess. I don't know where he is though, and he is kinda hard to spot in a crowd."

"Also," Miko looked up from examining Nyre, "have you checked your ranking yet? For all intents and purposes I got a pretty good score."

"Ok! Let's see what I got!" Miko turned on her Widget and pulled up her file.

_Scythe Serenade_

_Main: Longsword_

**_Partner(s):_ **

_-Fire Halk: Aldrel_

_Performance in Rookie Course:_

_Grade: Good_

_New Rank: D_

_Rewards: 1x Armor Ticket: Can be used to buy or craft one full set of armor._

_Notes:_

_Rookie Scythe Serenade is a DPS main with a penchant for chaos. She counterattacks more frequently than she strikes alone, making her a good team member and distraction. Is too excitable out of combat, risks being sent into the field without full knowledge of the plan or the monster being hunted. Would recommend a lighter and stronger armor-set._

"It just says 'Good' for me. With how many stunts I pull I was sure they were going to bring my grade down." Miko was glad, had she gotten any lower of an evaluation her mother would have scolded her into the next century.

Before Jack had the chance to comment, a notification popped up on both of their Widgets.

Miko was the first to react, "Sweet! New mission right off the bat! Come on Aldrel," she motioned for Aldrel to follow her, "time to get ready!"

"Guess we won't be able to visit Raf today." Jack commented, leading his halk away.


	11. Perfect Predator

**Disclaimer: Transformers Prime and the Monster Hunter franchise do not belong to me. I only own the storyline, new concepts, and OC's.**

**Normal: **"…"

**Machine Speaking: **"…"

**Flashback/Talking Over the Comms/Thinking: **_"…"_

**Important Points/ Significant: "…"**

**PS: Nothing that ELDER sends to its agents ever has their real name, it's always addressed to the codenames.**

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack's Widget announced that he, Miko, and someone codenamed Shock Stride were assigned to investigate a small spatial disturbance near a redwood biome. They were to meet in room 108 to discuss their plan and equip their armor. Each of their commlinks would be connected to each other until the mission is deemed complete. Then they would automatically un-link from each other.

They had three hours to prepare before their ride leaves.

Jack also planned on redeeming his armor voucher very quickly before this mission. It may be an assignment meant for C-Rank and below, but investigations usually mean that ELDER will only have preliminary information, and usually only rumors. Who knows what could be lurking there. Granted, the possibility for higher level threats are less than 40%, it is better to be prepared.

He decided to check what's available for purchase while heading to his room to gear Nyre up.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

After scrolling through most of the options, Jack had isolated several armor sets that matched his highly agile fighting style. Each of them had a different elemental resistance and effect on his weapons, so he decided to see what the mission had to offer before deciding. Nyre was trying to help, snorting in disgust at the ones that would not suit his partner.

After equipping the armor set provided by ELDER on Nyre, Jack headed towards the conference dome, and after checking that the room he was at was 108 and entering, Jack immediately noticed a hunter in the process of trying to play with a Gendrome, which is basically an electric raptor reaching his shoulder in height, while it was actively trying to pin them down. They also had a small blue halk flying above their head, chattering like it was laughing at them. Generally, not a good sign.

"Oh, HELLO, STRANGER!" The BRIGHT NEON ORANGE hunter stood up while waving furiously. The small blue halk landed on his shoulder. His skin was an even mocha color, and he had green eyes. This only made

Jack did not have a good feeling about this. Sure most of Earth's wild animals can't see orange, but that doesn't mean these creatures can't.

Jack was just standing there when Miko decided to show up with Aldrel right by her side.

"What's with the orange getup?" Miko was just as flabbergasted as Jack with this guy's fashion sense.

"Oh, this? Nothing much, just my lucky hunting outfit! Every time I wore this outfit, monsties would come flocking towards me. I never had to track them down." The hunter twirled his weapon, a glaive, around him in a lazy fashion. At this point, Jack was more concerned with how the Genprey eyeing him like a piece of meat.

Jack shook himself out of revere, "Anyway, let's get this show on the road, we've only got two hours and thirty minutes to come up with a plan and to suit up. I am Enigma Insight, and she is Scythe Serenade.

The hunter smiled and replied, "My codename is Shock Stride. Pleasure to meet ya."

Jack walked up to the table in the middle of the pristine white room filled with soft blue lights and activated the hologram with his Widget, much like how one would sync up their phone with a TV.

"We are being sent on a mission to the California Redwoods to check up on some reported sightings of dinosaurs." Jack pulled up the pictures taken and the map of the area. There were several shots of what looked like little theropod dinosaur prints in the grass and scratch marks on the trees.

The prints were enough to ascertain that it was most likely one of the theropod bird wyverns, but not which one.

"Well, at least we got something out of the blurry conspiracy photos," the orange hunter commented. He was twirling his staff again. Jack noted that he never seemed to stop moving, even though his speech would suggest otherwise.

"Alright guys," Jack said to Miko and Shock Stride, "This is everything that we know about these rumors. Many locals and tourists in the area have claimed to encounter little dinosaurs, and they seem to be very fast, which is why the images are so blurry."

"Good, they're just 'prey, otherwise they won't be able to climb trees." Miko looked at the images a bit closer. She enlarged two of the clearer pictures, showing two distinct sets of prints: one looked like something was sprinting over the ground and hitting trees with high speed, while the other one looked like it had small charcoal bits surrounding it. Jack had just assumed that they were rocks. "The strange thing is that these two monsters were seen in the same location. Usually Genprey and Velociprey hate one another and, going by the pictures and where they were taken, they seem to be within walking distance of each other. Velociprey travel at high speeds, while Genprey tend to shock their prey with enough power to crisp skin."

"Well, I suggest we go in with'a full DPS set. No use hiding' and no use trying' to block attacks from teeny-weeny little monsties!" Shock Stride said while getting up. "We'll figure out everything else on the way."

"Ok then," Jack said, closing out the hologram, "everyone knows where to go to meet our ride right?" Miko and Shock nodded. "We have around two hours to suit up and get ready."

Miko interrupted, exclaiming "So chug your energy drinks and ready your weapons! We're going on a hunt!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jack was back at his room, equipping his trusty dark blue armor set in favor of getting a new one. He figured that, since the mission had a very low danger threshold anyway, he didn't need to over prepare and weigh himself down. He just packed his trusty glue-gun and its bullets, and his dual blades.

"Will I need this?" Jack asked himself while examining his tripwires. They were mostly used to topple larger monsters, but he doubted that there would be anything bigger than a Velocidrome in those woods. Hopefully.

"Maybe I'll just take my gun instead," Jack finally decided, strapping his energy rifle onto his back. Luckily for him, he didn't need to worry about bullets for it.

"Alright," He called out to Nyre who was equipped with a light basic armor set, "time to head out."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Their ride was a small transport covered in dark green scales. It was one meant for transporting small teams of people for small to medium distances.

Everyone was wearing an armor set, and all of them had helmets with built in visors, perfect for flipping through different frequencies of light and seeing in the dark.

During the trip there, Shock could not seem to sit still. Sure he talks like he's prone to lazing around, but in reality even Miko is getting kind of annoyed by his constant random actions. He keeps trying to poke her or mess around with his Genprey who was apparently named Amp or the small halk who was named Ripple.

The various types of non-human partners that hunters can have vary immensely, so there are special straps and cables designed to hold pretty much anything in the center of the transport. The people sit in the seats near the sides, while the bigger creatures are strapped down in the center. It is not painful or stressful for them and all of the companions have been trained to view this as a routine.

Just because they are monsters does not mean that they are exempt from G-forces.

Anyway, Jack was busy watching with great amusement how Miko was the one getting annoyed by someone else's antics. Granted she was only ever really annoying at base, but Jack felt satisfaction, nonetheless.

They landed in a clearing, near the place with the most sightings. The moment they got off, Miko immediately freed her equipment and her halk before running out of the transport yelling _"FREEDOM!" _at the top of her lungs.

Aldrel quickly flew her back to the ship, with Miko dangling in his claws.

"Thanks Aldrel," Jack said. Aldrel snorted and retreated behind Miko, blocking off her escape route.

Jack and Shock finished removing the straps on their companions and their weapons and set off towards the epicenter of the sightings. The trees loomed above them, blocking out the afternoon sun.

They found markings on the trees almost immediately, with Shock remarking about how frequent they were. He had already scouted ahead in the five minutes that Jack was not paying attention, and claimed that the marks were all over the place with no apparent reason.

This could mean one of two things: There were so many monsties that they each had a tree as their home, or something went ham on the trees in a fit of rage. It couldn't have been a chase; there was no blood to be found. There is the possibility that a larger creature scared all the smaller creatures into fleeing, but Jack figured it would be pretty hard to travel through the narrow spaced between the trees without leaving marks.

He and the others didn't notice how the footprints were too widely spaced for the creature it came from not to be running. They didn't notice how the footprints were also organized, as if a group of critters were running in unison. They definitely did not think to look near the treetops.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Alright! We haven't found anything new here except a few scales, which by the way, confirms our thoughts that it was only a couple of 'prey running around," Shock poked around and said.

They had dragged two dead logs into a small clearing and were taking a break from attempting to track what seemed to be countless bird wyverns. The Halk where hunting somewhere nearby, as they had sent them off when it became apparent that the search wasn't going anywhere with the Genprey. It was getting darker, and they were no closer to finding the pack.

"Yeah, but the question is: WHERE?", Miko threw her hands up in frustration. Patience was really not her strong suit. "We've already searched this neck of the woods more than a dozen times already! I'm going to die of boredom at this rate!"

The forest rustled as she finished her rant, and it seemed quieter than it did before.

"I swear Scythe, if you jinxed us-" Jack never got to finish that sentence because a big black shadow just blotted out whatever light made it through the canopy, and the space around them seemed to warp a little. Feeling much like a rabbit hunted by a hawk, Miko and Jack stood frozen.

_"QUICKLY! DOWN!"_ Shock was the first to react andmotioned to them all to get near the trees and to stay down. For all his actions, Shock Stride was listed as five years older than Miko and would have gotten a lot more experience than her, even if he wore a BRIGHT ORANGE UNIFORM. His armor was orange too, which she now realized would be a major problem.

Just as the shadow disappeared, something big dropped out of the sky.

It looked like a small, dark purple big cat with wings and a beak.

Miko's Widget buzzed showing her the monster's stats. It was a small adult female Nargacuga, around as long as your average bowling lane. It looked like she was bringing back a freshly killed Velocidrome and scraps of what looked like a Gendrome, which raised Miko's eyebrows.

She wasn't the best at remembering info about monsters, but she was pretty sure that Nargacuga were ambush predators, and always chose to pick off the weakest prey first. For it to have killed off two 'dromes, which were leaders of their respective packs, the other members of the packs must no longer be alive.

Which meant it was two greenhorn hunters and one experienced hunter with an ORANGE target on his back, against an apex predator, when the sun was setting. Great, just great.

A hair-raising roar reminiscent of a wildcat came forth to Miko's hiding spot.

_"ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAR!" "AAAAAHHHH!"_

The space around them distorted, making them invisible to normal human beings. Only when a monster is enraged will this phenomenon occur, and only to the hunters surrounding them.

_Gosh darn it!_ Miko thought as she unsheathed her longsword, _I knew that monsters could see orange._

Her Widget automatically began to translate the frequencies that the monster was emitting, forming a coherent 'theme song' (Que MH3U Nargacuga Theme).

_"Shock!" _Jack called through their commlinks, _"I can't get a good look at it! Do you see any signs of an infection?"_ He asked before shooting a glob of glue at the side of the creature's face. It held for all of two seconds before the monster tore through it with her wing, letting out another roar as she focused on Jack. Miko took that as her que to run over to Jack, seeing that Shock Stride had climbed on a tree for a better view, and for a potential drop-down attack.

Her wings started to glow a sickly purple hue as the Nargacuga grew more enraged. She shrieked one last time before launching herself at Jack, Shock Stride forgotten. The purple glow spread to her eyes as it lept towards him. Jack quickly jumped out of the way while Miko got into position to counter her move.

_"Yup, whole lotta corruption on her, I'd say,"_ Shock said as Miko countered the Nargacuga's attack, causing her to flinch. He chose to drop down right now, tearing right through one of the monster's wing membranes, being careful to avoid the razor-sharp wing-edges. He busied himself with harassing the monster's ankles as the Nargacuga howled with pain. The roar was so loud that everyone had to stop and clamp their hands over their ears.

Her eyes were practically glowing now, Miko noted, as she dodged several quick bites aimed at her head, scoring a cut above the monster's eye.

Jack, once he had gotten to sniping distance, began to fire energy blasts at the Nargacuga's elbows, aiming to knock her off balance.

The creature howled as it launched itself into the air, pushing both Miko and Shock out of range before landing near Jack. Apparently, she had decided that Jack would make the easiest target at close range.

Wow was she going to be surprised. Jack responded immediately, putting away his rifle and pulling out his duel blades. As the monster tried to bite him, Jack launched himself onto her head, and began roll across her back, spinning the dual blades while he was at it, slicing a trail right across her back. He flipped over at the end of her tail, rolling right back to her head.

The wyvern spread out the quills on its tail and twirled itself around, shooting the quills at Miko and Shock, who had both started to close in again. Both got hit with at least two, and Jack was dislodged from her back.

Miko quickly pulled both quills out and, seeing that Shock was doing just fine, re-entered the fight.

_"Enigma! I'll draw her attention!", _Miko yelled through the comms, and got right next to her face, and scored a solid hit with the tip of her sword, knocking her over. _"Or I guess I could knock her over."_

_"Nice one Scythe. Guys, try to break one of her joints!"_ Jack was trying to get through the monster's protected face to end this quickly, while Miko and Shock targeted her legs. The monster was struggling to right itself, risking Jack's position on her head.

Miko and Shock both struck the same place after countless hits and the bone snapped. The monster shrieked in pain and thrashed her head, throwing Jack to the ground right by Miko.

He pulled out his glue gun and fired several shots at her legs, successfully keeping her on the ground. For the next few seconds at least.

_"See if you can cut her throat-"_ Jack was hit by the Nargacuga's tail and was thrown into a nearby tree, followed by several spines.

_"I'm OK!"_ Jack's muffled voice called out, followed by a groan. _"I'll be a minute."_

Miko and Shock then charged the Nargacuga who had managed to prop herself on her uninjured limb, launching slice after slice at the monster's vulnerable throat.

The monster finally broke free from the glue after Miko and Shock had left several large and bleeding gashes around her neck, leaping past them to blow them out of the way.

At this point Jack was back on his feet, so he fired a few shots at the monster's face. Miko darted to the monster's other side and slashed her eye. The monster suddenly roared, stamping on the ground and throwing everyone away.

As it turned its head, Miko could see that one of her eyes was no longer there.

_"Nice shot Enigma!"_ Miko said, _"Just need to bring her down now."_ The Nargacuga quickly turned and slammed her good forearm down, twisting to cut the hunters around her. The glowing purple markings surrounding her eyes and her pseudo-wings had spread to the rest of her body. Now it looked like they were fighting an angry purple ghost.

Miko rolled under the monster's chin and jumped with her longsword aimed at her eye. It went clear through to the other side of her skull, but the Nargacuga didn't stop.

_"She's like a ZOMBIE!"_ Miko shrieked as she dodged a chomp, _"How do we stop her?!"_

_"We have to exhaust her until the virus can't force her to move anymore."_ Shock said while finally driving his glaive through her leg. She roared and tried to support her weight on her forearms, but the injured one gave out. She landed on the forest floor but kept thrashing around.

At this point, it had become quite dark, making it harder to see. Miko set her own vizor to night vision and so did the others.

The Nargacuga was thrashing less but still managed to get herself upright again. Then a cackling call came from the woods.

The monster was distracted from trying to kill the nuisances in front of her, opting to look around for the source of the noise.

Suddenly, a shadow dislodged itself from the silhouette of the woods and struck the back of the Nargacuga's head. She snorted in surprise and tried to leap after the invader with another roar.

Another shadow knocked her back. Now, Miko could see that the shadows facing off against their target were Nyre and Aldrel!

As the bigger monster was distracted by the two halk, the Genprey, Amp, leapt off one of the trees and sunk his fangs right where Miko had stabbed through the skull of the Nargacuga, releasing an electric current. The bigger monster then went rigid and slowly collapsed onto the ground.

Amp must have given one heck of a shock for it to take out a monster at least three times his size. But Shock Stride had better wash out Amp's mouth as soon as possible, otherwise there could be heavy consequences. Shock just pulled out a water gun, whistled at Amp, and shot several blasts of water. Amp tried to catch them all, washing out his mouth while also providing some amusement for the rest of them.

Jack was rubbing his back when he came up to them, saying "I swear…_ouch, quill_… I'll never leave my electric charges at base again.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When Jack saw that the Nargacuga was down and that the theme song was no longer playing, he called in a medium transport for one medium monster and one small one. The Nargacuga had eaten the remains of the Gendrome but didn't touch the Velocidrome.

The barrier that separated them from the normal world had dissipated with the death of the monster that caused it.

Jack stashed the quill he'd pulled out earlier with his weapons. He then asked the others whether they wanted to head back to base now.

"Uh, yeah. Its almost too dark to see properly, even with the night-vision goggles." Miko said right before bumping her arm into a tree trunk.

"I'll have to agree with her, it's dangerous for you wee-little greenhorns to be out in a monster spawn zone at night." Shock said as he kicked at the foliage. There was a _clank_ and a muffled curse. Looks like he hit a rock.

The Nargacuga appeared in this region of the world, so there may be other monsters here. There will be more hunters arriving to investigate.

"By the way Shock, where's Ripple?" Jack noticed that the little wyvern was missing from her usual perch on Shock's shoulder.

"Um, she's up there." He pointed at the treetops, "I wouldn't worry, she's coming back." The small wyvern appeared back on his shoulder, gnawing on a pinecone.

Jack blinked, not knowing how to respond. The halk and Amp had calmed down and were resting by Miko near the center of the clearing.

Jack then called in for their ride to pick them up, and soon a small transport was shown to have landed nearby with a larger transport hovering overhead. Jack showed the personnel the locations of the Nargacuga and the Velocidrome, then headed over with the others to their private transport.

On the way there, Jack noticed a large footprint. It was about three times as big as Jack's own and seemed like it was made by a humanoid. He stared for a bit before taking a photo to show Miko later.

The transport was a dark blue one that was slightly aquatic this time, making Jack suspect that they were taking a detour through the water. Sometimes the local air enforcement would cause ELDER transport shuttles to make detours in an effort to evade detection.

This time the transport would take them through the ocean, to deter any potential pursuers.

The startup procedure was the same as the normal transport, but there were more locking procedures. It seems that there were at least three different layers that needed to be sealed for the transport to effectively travel underwater at high speeds.

It was when they were over the ocean when the shuttle announced a new set of dialogue.

"Attention. The transport is about to dive. Please make sure all belongings and companions are securely strapped in. Please lean back into the seat and hold onto the harness with both hands."

The transport repeated this three times before tightening the harnesses. Jack could barely breath with the straps constricting his chest.

He faintly heard Miko saying "Can't … Breath…" while Shock seemed to be laughing to himself and wriggling in his harness.

The transport hit the water shortly after, the sensation resembling that of a shuttle touching down at base. Jack and the others were shaken quite badly but because they had been pressed into the seats, they didn't suffer whiplash. The straps loosened after some time, so Jack could look around. Luckily Miko had chosen to ascend to a higher state of being rather than endure Shock's poking and squirming.

The windows on this transport were longer than the ones on the normal shuttle, spanning the length of the shuttle. Looking out the windows, Jack could see small sholes of silver fish flash by as the transport whizzed through the water. They dove down deeper, where the water turned a medium shade of blue.

Soon the transport notified them that they were going to come out of the water.

"Attention. The transport is about to take off. Please make sure all belongings and companions are securely strapped in. Please lean back into the seat and hold onto the harness with both hands."

Jack felt the straps tighten up again as the transport again began to rise, bursting out of the water in a shower of silver sparkles. It hung in the air for a second before the thrusters propelled it into the sky.

From then on out it was a normal ride through a darkening sky.

When they arrived at base, they were directed towards the nearest decontamination room, where they and any of their companions will be treated for any potential virus infections. They were only sent into this room whenever they were injured directly by a monster.

For hunters, as long as the virus has not spent more than a few days in the host, cleaning out the infected wound and administering a 'virophage', the bacteriophage's smaller cousin, will get rid of any viral bodies. For monsters the process is pretty much the same.

Though the process of purging the virus is fairly simple, the consequences of not eliminating the virus from an infected host is very severe.

Monsters will become incredibly hostile and aggressive, similar to the effects of rabies on animals native to Earth. They will also experience a rise in their fighting capabilities as the virus forces all of the monster's power into attacking.

This is also cause for the glowing markings that hunters can often see when hunting these creatures. As the monster's muscles enlarge and it begins performing more complex movements, the membranes holding the muscles in place start to tear, letting the infected, purple blood ooze onto the outer epidermis of the monster. It is quite similar to internal bleeding.

The effects of the virus left untreated have never been documented on a hunter, but the general conjecture is that the hunter will start to become more dangerous towards both fellow hunters and monsters alike.

Everyone had to leave their armor on and sent their weapons through a conveyor to be cleaned. Those that did not have helmets must wear protective face masks that covered their entire face. This includes companions.

There was a dispenser outside of the decontamination rooms, that dispended waterproof masks for both humans and companions. This is to prevent any of the solvents and cleaners from getting into their eyes. Jack made sure all the companions were wearing one before they all stepped inside.

The decontamination room they were led to looked like a plain white shower stall, big enough for the three hunters and their companions. When they stepped in, a horizontal wall of water mixed with rubbing alcohol was sprayed in their direction. It was meant to decontaminate their suits and any open wounds exposed with a tear in the armor. Jack had two spots where his armor was cracked and one wound caused by the Nargacuga's spines, while Miko and Shock both had two smaller puncture wounds.

After getting showered with the cleaner, they were all ushered into the examination ward to be given their decontamination shots, then they were free to go after picking up their weapons.

When Jack finally got back to his room with Nyre, it was close to midnight. He wouldn't be able to redeem an armor set today after all. Both he and Nyre need sleep, with Nyre already yawning so hard he was cracking his jaw every time.

He put the Nargacuga spine next to the box of scales on his desk, to be looked at later.

And so, when Jack got into bed and Nyre jumped on top of him, neither of them were that worried about what the next day will bring.

* * *

**Shock Stride isn't all that annoying, just a bit quirky. It's that Miko is unused to someone else causing distractions that she thinks he is an annoyance.**


End file.
